BurmaNet News, August 23-25, 2008

[Editor]

August 23-25, 2008 Issue # 3541

QUOTE OF THE DAY
He [Gambari] is doing what the junta asked for. He is like a
representative of the junta.
—Aye Thar Aung, Secretary of both the Arakan League for Democracy and the
Committee Representing the People’s Parliament in Rangoon

INSIDE BURMA
BBC News: UN Burma envoy 'wasted his time'
Irrawaddy: Suu Kyi refuses to accept food: Exiled NLD
Irrawaddy: Suu Kyi refusal to meet envoy sends a strong message, say
observers
Irrawaddy: Cyclone victims turn to towns for handouts
Mizzima: Burma's opposition politician attacked by unknown perpetrator
DVB: Former Maggin abbot banned from collecting alms
Narinjara News: Two riot policemen killed, two injured in altercation

BUSINESS / TRADE
AP: Myanmar gems lure buyers despite ban
DVB: Authorities extort money from cyclone victims
KNG: Kachins to tackle socio-economic issues

HEALTH / AIDS
Irrawaddy: Snakebite death highlights medicine shortages

REGIONAL
AFP: Thai PM says West uses Myanmar's Suu Kyi as political tool
Irrawaddy: Burmese protests not allowed in Singapore

OPINION / OTHER
IPS: Burma:  No photo Op for Gambari - Marwaan Macan-Markar
Cutting Edge News Asia Desk: The lingering disaster in Burma
Reign of terror in Burma requires genuine U.N. action - not just official
visits - Benedict Rogers

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

August 25, BBC News
UN Burma envoy 'wasted his time'

Burma's main opposition party has dismissed the latest visit by UN envoy
Ibrahim Gambari as a waste of time.

Nyan Win, of the National League for Democracy (NLD), said Mr Gambari had
not established any dialogue between the military rulers and the
opposition.

He was also annoyed that the envoy appeared to have given tacit backing to
the junta's planned election in 2010.

Detained NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi refused to meet Mr Gambari, fuelling
speculation she is unhappy with the UN.

And Mr Gambari was not invited to the remote capital of Nay Pyi Taw to
meet the junta's top leader, Senior General Than Shwe.

The BBC's South East Asia correspondent, Jonathan Head, says Mr Gambari
now seems to have used up all the credibility he had.

After more than two years of failure his statements remain relentlessly
upbeat - yet he seems to put no pressure on the generals, our
correspondent says.

Consolidated power

Nyan Win expressed particular annoyance with Mr Gambari for negotiating
with the generals over their "roadmap" to democracy, which plans for
elections in 2010.

"We have made very clear to the UN envoy that the mission should not
discuss the upcoming 2010 elections, as the NLD does not recognise the
military-backed constitution," he said.

"The UN envoy was wasting his time on matters that he was not supposed to
deal with."

He added that Mr Gambari had also failed to make any progress on the other
major theme of his mission - to secure the release of political prisoners
including Ms Suu Kyi, who is under house arrest.

During his six-day visit, Mr Gambari did hold talks with the NLD and meet
Prime Minister Thein Sein - a figurehead who holds little real power.

But diplomats conceded that nothing concrete had come of his visit.

The NLD won a general election in 1990 but the junta refused to allow the
party to assume power.

In recent months, the generals have further consolidated their grip on
power, pushing through a constitution which reserves 25% of the seats in
any future parliament for the military.

They have also extended Ms Suu Kyi's house arrest for another year. She
has spent more than half of the past 20 years in detention.

____________________________________

August 25, Irrawaddy
Suu Kyi refuses to accept food: Exiled NLD

Detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi refused to accept a food
delivery to her home one week ago, according to the exiled National League
for Democracy-Liberated Area. It isn’t clear if she has started a hunger
strike.

The exiled group released a statement on Monday saying that Suu Kyi has
refused to accept food from members of her party for nine days.

However, the NLD headquarters in Rangoon has yet to confirm the news. Nyan
Win, a spokesperson for the NLD, told The Irrawaddy on Monday that the
party was trying to confirm the report.

Suu Kyi told an NLD member, Myint Soe, who regularly delivers her food not
to bring any more after the middle of this month, according to her family
lawyer, Kyi Win, who was allowed to meet her twice on August 8 and 17 to
discuss legal issues surrounding her continued detention.

One senior NLD member in Rangoon also said that Suu Kyi had a plan to “cut
food supplies” unless her demands to meet her lawyer for further
discussions were met by the military authorities.

Suu Kyi was concerned with restrictions imposed on her by the regime, the
lawyer told The Irrawaddy over the phone from Rangoon on Monday.

The lawyer explained that under restriction (a), Suu Kyi is not allowed to
meet and hold talks with diplomats or political organizations. Under
restriction (b), she is not allowed to leave her house.

Under these restrictions, Suu Kyi could not, according to the regime’s own
rules, meet Gambari or any visiting UN envoys. Kyi Win said that the way
the UN officials called her to come out of her house with a loudspeaker
would have forced her to violate the restrictions.

Two of Gambari’s aides shouted with a bullhorn in front of Suu Kyi’s house
that the envoy wanted to meet her last Friday, the last scheduled day of
his sixth visit to Burma for national reconciliation talks between the
regime and the NLD. Gambari later added a day to his trip.

Observers said that Suu Kyi’s refusal to meet the UN envoy last week
showed her disappointment with his failed attempts to broker a solution to
the country’s decades-old political standoff.

Suu Kyi has been under house arrest for 13 of the past 19 years. During
most of this time, her food has been supplied exclusively by her
colleagues.

In 2003, soon after Suu Kyi’s motorcade was attacked by junta-backed thugs
in Upper Burma, the US State Department said that she had started a hunger
strike.

____________________________________

August 25, Irrawaddy
Suu Kyi refusal to meet envoy sends a strong message, say observers - Saw
Yan Naing

Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s refusal to meet with
United Nations Special Envoy Ibrahim Gambari during his visit to the
country last week has put a strong spotlight on the UN’s failed diplomatic
efforts, said observers and members of the country’s opposition.

“I think she sent the message not only to Gambari but also to the UN and
the Burmese people that there is no tangible consequence from the last
meetings,” said Win Naing, a spokesperson for the opposition National
League for Democracy (NLD) in Rangoon.

In a surprise move, Suu Kyi cancelled a meeting with Gambari last
Wednesday and refused to meet with him again on Friday. Her refusal came
amid criticism of the envoy’s meetings with groups formed by the ruling
junta as a means of shoring up support for a military-drafted constitution
and planned elections in 2010.

But Suu Kyi was not the only person who did not want to meet Gambari on
this trip. Some observers said that the refusal of Snr-Gen Than Shwe to
meet the UN envoy was one of the reasons Suu Kyi declined to meet him.

“She obviously wants to send the message to the junta and to the UN that
she is frustrated with the lack of progress,” said Larry Jagan, a British
journalist who specializes in Burmese issues, speaking to The Irrawaddy on
Monday.

Meanwhile, Burma’s ruling military regime moved quickly to exploit the
situation. State-run television showed Gambari’s aides and Burmese
officials standing in front of Suu Kyi’s house—one holding a
loudspeaker—calling her to come out.

Information Minister Kyaw Hsan, who in a previous encounter with Gambari
severely upbraided him for his supposed bias towards the pro-democracy
leader, said: “We deeply regret that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi declined to meet
with Your Excellency.”

Many Burma watchers and Burmese groups in exile were less sympathetic.
Several Burmese bloggers ridiculed Gambari’s mission and UN efforts.

A Western diplomat with a keen interest in Burma said that the outcome of
Gambari’s trip was “quite disappointing.”

“Her [Suu Kyi] tactic was clearly the result of frustration at the failure
of the regime to take her and Gambari seriously,” said the diplomat,
noting that this was the third time that Than Shwe had failed to meet
Gambari.

Although he was only supposed to meet with mid-ranking officials on this
trip, the regime’s prime minister, Gen Thein Sein, finally made himself
available after Suu Kyi’s cancellation.

Aye Thar Aung, secretary of the both Arakan League for Democracy and the
Committee Representing the People’s Parliament, blasted the UN envoy,
calling him “just a guest of the junta.”

“He is doing what the junta asked for. He is like a representative of the
junta,” said the Rangoon-based Arakanese politician, echoing the sentiment
of some who believe that Gambari endorsed the 2010 election.

“Mr Gambari hasn’t achieved any concrete result from this trip at all,”
said Jagan.   “There is no improvement in the political situation. There
was no discussion of the release of political prisoners.”

“I think his mission now must be at an end,” said Jagan.

____________________________________

August 25, Irrawaddy
Cyclone victims turn to towns for handouts - Aung Thet Wine

Economic hardships have forced a growing number of survivors of Cyclone
Nargis to leave their homes in rural parts of the Irrawaddy delta to seek
assistance in Rangoon and other urban centers, according to local sources.

“I came to Rangoon to look for donors,” said a 50-year-old man from Kyone
Chin, a village in Dedaye Township. “We don’t have enough food in our
village, and our farming and fishing businesses have still not recovered.
We need assistance badly.”

Kyone Chin village lost 50 of its 1,400 inhabitants and ninety percent of
its structures in the deadly cyclone, according to the man. He added that
food supplies and other assistance from UN agencies and the government
have been dwindling over time.

 “The whole village was terribly destroyed. The worst thing is that now we
are facing hunger,” he said, explaining why he had come to Rangoon to
find support for his village.

Private donors played an important role in the early stages of the relief
effort, but nearly four months later, their numbers have fallen. Due in
part to government efforts to control movements in the cyclone-stricken
region, few trucks carrying privately donated relief supplies are now
reaching remote villages, say local people.

Other cyclone-hit villages in Dedaye Township, including Leik Kyun, Hmae
Bi, Lay Ywa, Mae Kanan, Taw Pone and Yae Pu Wa, are also facing severe
shortages of foodstuffs and other basic supplies, according to local
residents.

They are not alone in waiting for aid. A volunteer from Rangoon who has
been involved in relief and rebuilding efforts in the delta said that many
villages in Kungyangone Township, including Taw Kha Yan Gyi, Taw Kha Yan
Kalay, Mayan, Maezali and Hti Pha, are also desperate for additional
assistance.

“The situation is hard to say,” said the volunteer. “They do get a little
assistance from the government and they have received some from UN
agencies. But it’s not enough.

“There are still many people living under make-shift temporary shelters
constructed with bamboo posts and tarpaulins sheets. Some can’t get rice
to eat, so they are just surviving on what little food is available to
them,” the volunteer added.

A local journalist who recently returned from Laputta Township said that
farmers there were also struggling, as seeds planted late in the season
have not been growing well. Fishermen are also worried about their future
food security, as poor-quality nets and boats provided by the government
have proven to be almost useless.

“In Laputta, there is no immediate concern about rice, since it is mainly
provided by the UN,” said the journalist. “The problem is with rebuilding
livelihoods. The farmers are not doing well because the tillers provided
by the government are often broken, and seeds are not growing properly.
Fishermen also have trouble because the boats they received after the
cyclone often need fixing, and the nets are useless for fishing.”

The journalist added that much of the aid that does reach some of the more
remote villages soon ends up in the hands of village officials, as little
effort has been made to rein in widespread corruption.

Meanwhile, in Mawlamyainggyun Township, there are also reports of severe
food shortages in the villages of Yae Twin Kone, Pet Pyae, Ta Zaung, Alae
Yae Kyaw, Myit Kyi Toe and Pya Leik.

According to a resident of Alae Yae Kyaw, some local villages have sent
small groups to Laputta to appeal for aid from local relief organizations
based there. The results of their efforts have been disappointing,
however.

“When we asked an NGO in Laputta for assistance, they provided just 3 pyi
(about 750 ml) of rice per person for the whole month.”

Little aid ever reaches the villages of Mawlamyainggyun Township because
of their inaccessibility. Villages located on the boundary of
Mawlamyainggyun and Laputta townships, such as Yae Twin Kone, Pet Pyae, Ta
Zaung, Alae Yae Kyaw, Myit Kyi Toe and Pya Leik, are especially deprived
because they can only be reached by chartered boats and are reportedly not
on the government’s list of villages eligible for support.

If villagers in these areas do not receive aid to rebuild their lives
soon, the hunger and destitution they face now could result in more severe
problems in the future, said a local volunteer who has witnessed the
situation.

“Unless they receive some means of surviving, the hunger of these
villagers could lead to killings and robbing. If we can’t heal a small
sore now, we may face more serious harm in the long run,” said the
volunteer.

____________________________________

August 25, Mizzima News
Burma's opposition politician attacked by unknown perpetrator - Zarni

A political leader of the Opposition in Burma on Saturday was injured
after he was deliberately tripped by an unknown man from behind.

Aye Thar Aung, a member of the 'Committee Representing People's
Parliament', an opposition group comprising Members of Parliament elected
in the 1990 elections, said he was purposely tripped by the man, who he
suspects belongs to the military intelligence, while getting down from a
bus in downtown Rangoon.

Aye Thar Aung said he was on his way to a barbershop on Saturday at about
1 p.m. (local time) and was getting off the No. 38 route bus, when he was
suddenly tripped on the stairs of the bus. He fell on the ground and
sustained injuries on his knees and palms.

"I lost control and fell down. I sustained bruises and injuries on my
palms and on my right knee. I can't stand properly now but have no
fractures. I am lucky not to have got a head injury," Aye Thar Aung told
Mizzima over telephone.

While it was not clear who tripped him, Aye Thar Aung, secretary of the
Arakan League for Democracy (ALD) party said the person has been
constantly following him wherever he went. Aung believes he belongs to
Burma's notorious 'Military Affairs Security'.

"He is just about 20 years old and he has been following me all through,"
said Aye Thar Aung, adding that the person had purposely put forward one
foot on the bus to trip him.

The 63 year-old Arakan leader said, he lodged a complaint at the
Pazundaung Township Police Station, adding the man continued to follow him
to the gates of the police station.

Aye Thar Aung said, the man reportedly told people in the neighborhood
that he had been assigned to follow the politician.

"I heard that he told people in my neighborhood that he was unhappy with
me for roaming around the city without any work, as he has to continuously
follow me. I think he tripped me because of that," Aye Thar Aung said.

Burma's Opposition party members in recent times have been subjected to
frequent attacks by unknown perpetrators. But the law enforcement agencies
of the military government have failed to bring the culprits to book every
time an opposition member has been attacked.

In June, an elected Member of Parliament, Than Lwin, from Madaya township
of Mandalay division was hit on the face with a knuckle-duster by an
unknown person.

Similarly, Tin Yu, a member of Burma's main opposition party – the
National League for Democracy – in Rangoon Division's Hliang Thar Yar
Township, had to undergo a minor operation where he received 21 stitches
for an injury he sustained from a beating by unknown group of people in
April.

In March, a Human Rights activist, Myint Aye (57) sustained head injuries
from a similar beating by unknown people. Myint Hlaing, chairman of the
Hlaing Thar Yar NLD was also attacked by unknown people the same month.

In February, political activists Moe Nay Soe and Phone Gyi from Taungup
town of Arakan State in western Burma were also beaten up by an unknown
group.

In all the cases, though the victims said they had lodged complaints with
the police, so far there have been no reports of arrests or effort at
finding the culprits.

____________________________________

August 25, Democratic Voice of Burma
Former Maggin abbot banned from collecting alms

Elderly monk U Nandiya, who was forced out of Maggin monastery when it was
closed down in November last year, has been prevented from collecting alms
by local authorities.

U Nandiya was the temporary head monk at Maggin monastery at the time of
its closure on 29 November last year, having taken over when his son, the
previous abbot, was arrested.

U Nandiya was forced to leave Maggin monastery and was sent to Myo Thit in
Taungdwingyi township, Magwe division.

Ko Aung Ko, a resident of Taungdwingyi, said the pressure from the
authorities had made it difficult for U Nandiya to support himself.

"The monk is facing a lot of trouble receiving alms from villagers as he
has been forbidden from doing that by the local authorities who are also
pressuring villagers not to donate anything to him," Ko Aung Ko said.

"He is very miserable at his age with no one to take care of him and
provide him with medical support."

Residents said the monk had been finding ways to make ends meet, but was
still struggling due to the authorities’ restrictions.

U Nandiya is currently staying in a monastery compound in Shwe Kyaung Gon
village.

____________________________________

August 25, Narinjara News
Two riot policemen killed, two injured in altercation

Two riot police personnel were stabbed to death and two others were
critically injured on Friday in an altercation with local youth in Sittwe,
the capital of Arakan State.

"The incident occurred at around 9:30 p.m. in Kathay Wra Ward on the
outskirts of Sittwe after a quarrel between a group of riot policemen and
local youths," an eyewitness said.

The quarrel started when the group of unarmed riot policemen in an
inebriated condition disturbed the five local youths when they were
strumming guitars in front of a house in Kathay Wra Ward.

During the quarrel, the riot police peronnel allegedly assaulted the
youths first, and the youths then retaliated with knives, inflicting fatal
and serious injuries on the four policemen. Two riot policemen died on the
spot while two were rescued by fellow police personnel and driven out of
the ward for medical attention.

After the attack, the youths fled to unknown locations and they continue
to evade arrest by the authorities in Sittwe.

"Many police personnel have been deployed in the ward since then to look
for the youth, but no one has been arrested yet. However, the authorities
are interrogating their relatives about the incident," the eyewitness
said.

The incident occurred after authorities deployed riot policemen in Sittwe
to prevent protests by local monks against the regime.

It was learnt that the riot police personnel who were involved in the
incident are from a platoon that is stationed at the office of the local
ward council in Kathay Wra.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

August 25, Associated Press
Myanmar gems lure buyers despite ban
U.S. embargo is intended to put pressure on junta

Yangon, Myanmar — Thousands of sapphires, rubies, diamonds, emeralds, jade
and other gems glitter in long glass display cases as merchants haggle
with professional buyers—most of them foreigners—and tourists.

Business is good here at the sales center of the Myanmar Gems Museum,
despite legislation signed by President George W. Bush last month to ban
the import of rubies and jade into America. Yangon gem sellers dismissed
the sanction against their government as a symbolic gesture unlikely to
have much impact on their lucrative trade.

"Our buyers are almost all from China, Russia, the gulf, Thailand, India
and the European Union, and we can barely keep up with their demand," said
Theta Mar of Mandalar Jewelry, a store in the museum gem shop, where
prices range from a few hundred dollars to about $18,000.

Myanmar produces up to 90 percent of the world's rubies and is a top
international supplier of other gems and jade. The government-controlled
sector, often criticized for harsh working conditions and poor
environmental controls, is a major source of export revenue for the
military.

No recent or reliable official statistics on the gemstone trade are
publicly available, but analysts and human-rights groups say it likely
brings the military regime $300 million to $400 million a year.

The embargo on gems is the latest U.S. move to apply financial pressure on
the junta. Many Western nations have instituted economic and political
sanctions against the military government, which seized power in 1988,
violently suppressed pro-democracy demonstrations by monks last September
and hindered foreign aid after a devastating cyclone in May.

The U.S. bill bans all import of gems from Myanmar. U.S. officials say
Myanmar had been evading earlier gem-targeting sanctions by laundering the
stones in third countries before they were shipped to the United States.

The United States also has been trying to persuade the UN Security Council
to consider introducing international sanctions, and has demanded that the
junta release opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest.

Exiled Myanmar pro-democracy activists hailed the new U.S. measure.

"This legislation sends a strong signal to Burma's military regime that
the United States stands firmly on the side of my country's democracy
movement," said Aung Din, co-founder of the Washington-based U.S. Campaign
for Burma, which lobbies for political change.

However, the junta has not issued an official response. And local
officials have privately told foreign diplomats the embargo will have no
effect on the sector's foreign sales unless the wider international
community joins in.

Such a move seems unlikely anytime soon. Although the European Union has
edged closer to the punitive U.S. position toward Myanmar's military
rulers, Yangon's regional trading partners — China, India and members of
the Association of Southeast Asian Nations — have argued that engaging the
junta will be more productive in the long run than isolating it through
sanctions.

The junta holds regular gem auctions for foreign merchants during which it
sells thousands of lots of valuable stones, which are said to generate
upward of $100 million in foreign currency per sale. The last such event,
held in November, drew more than 3,600 foreign buyers.

____________________________________

August 25, Democratic Voice of Burma
Authorities extort money from cyclone victims

Villagers in Irrawaddy division have complained that local authorities
have continued to extort money from cyclone victims under various
pretexts, despite a letter of complaint they sent to SPDC leaders to
report the practice.

U Than Zin, chairman of Mangay Kalay village Peace and Development Council
in Dadaye township, PDC members and U Khin Kyaw (also known as U Htin
Kyaw) of the township land survey department extorted money from villagers
for receiving aid from donors.

U Ba Kyi, a farmer from Mangay Kalay, said locals had been forced to pay
for diesel fuel that had been donated to them.

“There were 1383 gallons of diesel, and they collected 500 kyat a gallon
from us – so 919,000 kyat,” U Ba Kyi said.

“But these were actually given to us as donations.”

U Ba Kyi said each household was also told to pay money to help cyclone
victims.

“They collected 500 kyat each from 432 families on the pretext of helping
the storm victims,” he said.

“We had to pay 216,000 each time and we had to pay four times, totaling
around 864,000.”

The authorities reportedly told villagers they needed to collect money to
fund the accommodation and hospitality for donors.

“Not satisfied with that, they collected 8000 kyat each from 212 farmers
in order to buy fertiliser from the state agricultural organisation – 742
bags of fertilizers – amounting to exactly 1,696,000,” U Ba Kyi said.

“They have been misappropriating the money they have collected.”

The villagers sent their letter of complaint, which they had each signed
and given their national identity card number, to junta leader senior
general Than Shwe, prime minister general Thein Sein, the social and
relocation minister and hotel and tourism minister, and the commander of
Western Command, but no action has so far been taken by the authorities.

Similarly in Talokehtaw village in Rangoon division’s Twante township, the
village authority chairman and members of the Union Solidarity and
Development Association and the Women’s Affairs Federation have been
profiting from aid, a villager told DVB.

“In Twante’s Talokehtaw village, when they’re distributing rice or
medicine, there have been incidents when they have failed to give out the
aid or extorted money,” the villager said.

The villager said that goods had mainly been distributed to people who
supported the authorities, while others had to pay to receive materials.

“One day, they gave things out using a raffle ticket system, but each
house had to pay 300 kyat to enter the raffle,” the villager said.

“Even if you won something you had to pay 1500 kyat [to receive it],” he
said.

“U Maung Thaung, U Aye Thaung and Daw Cho are the main people involved in
that.”

____________________________________

August 25, Kachin News Group
Kachins to tackle socio-economic issues

Kachin leaders have decided to resolve the socio-economic problems
plaguing the Kachin community in Northern Burma at a three-day meeting
from August 20-22 in Laiza, the headquarters of the Kachin Independence
Organization (KIO) on the Sino-Burma border, said participants.

The meeting at the initiative of the KIO Central Committee focused on the
increase in trafficking in women from Kachin State into neighbouring
China, more and more Kachins going away to foreign countries seeking work
and the alarming increase in drug addiction in Kachin State, participants
told KNG.

Participants at the meeting admitted that if the problems were not
resolved, it would threaten both national interest and security.

The Kachin National Consultative Assembly (KNCA), an umbrella organization
of all Kachin tribes, based in Myitkyina the capital of Kachin State has
been told to provide leadership in fighting these problems, N'sang Tu
Awng, a committee member of the KNCA told KNG.

The Kachin community is alarmed at the seriousness of drug addiction among
the youth and the ever increasing problem of trafficking in women into
China when they venture to seek work to support their families, said
sources in the KNCA and the KIO's Kachin Women's Association (KWA).

Currently, over 200 Kachin refugees recognized by the UNHCR and more than
2,000 Kachins who are waiting for UNHCR's recognition arrived in
neighbouring Malaysia alone, said the Kachin Refugee Committee (KRC).

This meeting was held a day after the fourth ceremony on KWA Day under the
KIO in Laiza on August 19. It focused mainly on trafficking in women.

All participants at the meeting were invited by name through letters by
the KIO. Christian church leaders, pastors, businessmen, leaders of KNCA
and individuals including Rev. Dr. Lahtaw Saboi Jum, former Kachin Baptist
Convention's general secretary, founder of Shalom Foundation and peace
mediator between the ruling junta and the KIO attended the meeting, KIO
leaders said.

However, Kachin democracy activists said that the root cause of
socio-economic problems in Kachin State was military rule in Burma which
can be solved only politically.

____________________________________
HEALTH / AIDS

August 25, Irrawaddy
Snakebite death highlights medicine shortages - Min Lwin and Violet Cho

The death of a young Rangoon student after being bitten by viper has
highlighted the serious shortage of antidote preparations in Burmese
hospitals, according to sources within the country’s medical profession.

The snakebite victim, Myat Su Mon, a second year student at Rangoon’s
Technological University, died after three hospitals were reportedly
unable to treat her with lifesaving antidote.

“Almost every hospital in the city is short of antidote for bites from
venomous snakes like vipers and cobras,” said a Rangoon physician.

“Usually, antidote is stocked in areas with a significant snakebite risk,”
said a doctor at Rangoon’s Medical Department.

The Ministry of Health launched an inquiry into the death of Myat Su Mon,
and the superintendant and duty doctor at one of the hospitals, Insein,
were fired, according to a doctor there.

Insein Hospital transferred Myat Su Mon to Rangoon General. “We had
antidote at the hospital that day,” the Insein doctor said. “I don’t know
why she was transferred to Rangoon General.”

Snakebite antidote is produced by Burma’s Myanmar Paramedical Factory,
which issues more than 40,000 bottles annually.

Burma’s Minister of Health, Dr Kyaw Myint, has denied there is a shortage
of antidote, saying sufficient supplies were reaching hospitals,
particularly those in Rangoon and Irrawaddy Division. Local health
authorities were instructed to administer antidote supplies efficiently,
he said.

Some in the medical profession, however, point to Burma’s abysmal
performance in health care and suggest snakebite treatment is one of the
areas that are not covered adequately.

Between 30 and 50 percent of Burma’s budget goes towards military
expenditure and only 3 percent on health care.

Burma also has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in Southeast
Asia, and infant mortality (under 1 year old) and child mortality (under 5
years old) are at least four times higher than in Thailand.

A report by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in 2006
said that the junta’s failure to offer its citizens adequate healthcare
means more resistant strains of malaria and tuberculosis are developing in
Burma.

Similarly, the report concludes that Burma is a melting pot for
increasingly diverse strains of the HIV virus, and that the country is at
risk of failing to adequately monitor and contain bird flu, with
potentially deadly results both nationally and outside the country.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

August 25, Agence France Presse
Thai PM says West uses Myanmar's Suu Kyi as political tool

Thailand's prime minister on Monday criticised Western nations for pinning
their efforts to bring democracy to Myanmar on the release of detained
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Samak Sundaravej met Ibrahim Gambari, the UN's top envoy to Myanmar, on
Monday and told the diplomat that efforts to engage the military regime
would be more productive if the Nobel peace prize winner was left off the
agenda.

"Europe uses Aung San Suu Kyi as a tool. If it's not related to Aung San
Suu Kyi, you can have deeper discussions with Myanmar," he told reporters
after the Bangkok meeting.

"Aung San Suu Kyi is one thing. The (international community) should talk
about how to bring democracy in Myanmar and focus on the constitution and
the elections," he added.

Samak said he would relay that message in a meeting with UN Secretary
General Ban Ki-moon in New York next month.

Gambari left Myanmar on Saturday after failing to secure a meeting with
Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for most of the last 19
years.

Her National League for Democracy (NLD) party has branded the UN visit a
"waste of time".

Aung San Suu Kyi led the NLD to a landslide election victory in 1990, but
was never allowed to govern.

The regime instead unveiled its own "road map" to democracy and drafted a
new constitution, which was approved in a much-criticised referendum in
May.

The junta says the charter will set the stage for elections in 2010, but
the pro-democracy movement say the process simply enshrines the army's
position in the nation it has ruled since 1962.

Samak said that as the current chair of regional bloc the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Thailand would try to persuade the junta
to allow observers at the promised election.

____________________________________

August 25, Irrawaddy
Burmese protests not allowed in Singapore - Min Lwin

Myo Tun, one of three Burmese activists who took part in political
activities in Singapore, says “Now I have no future.” He is among three
activists who were ordered to leave Singapore for demonstrating against
the junta.

On August 2, the Singapore government declined to renew visas permits or
extensions for Myo Tun and two other Burmese activists for participating
in public protests illegally.

Public demonstrations are not allowed in Singapore without a police permit.

In addition to Myo Tun, Soe Thiha and Hlaing Moe were also forced to leave
the country. Myo Tun had resided in Singapore for nine years.

The activists were part of a larger group of people who demonstrated
against the Burmese junta in November 2007 during the Asean Summit meeting
in Singapore.

“I didn’t break any of Singapore’s criminal laws,” Myo Tun said. “The
Singapore government’s treatment of us was unjustified.”

Myo Tun, 38, was jailed three times in Burma as a political prisoner
following the 1988 pro-democracy uprising. “It is apparent the Singapore
authorities wanted to punish Burmese activists for working for democracy
in Burma,” he said.

Burmese activists who are long-time residents of Singapore stepped up
their pro-democracy activities following the September 2007 uprising.

In April and May of this year, activists staged demonstrations in front of
the Burmese embassy in Singapore against the new constitution.

Hlaing Moe, a part-time student who is now living in Malaysia, said
Burmese activists did not commit any crimes against Singaporean law.

“The Singapore Immigration and Checkpoint Authorities didn’t give any
reason or explanation for rejecting the renewals or extensions of our
visas and permits,” he said.

Kyaw Soe, a member of the Overseas Burmese Patriots (OBP), a group of
about 50 Burmese activists, said nine other activists, all permanent
residents of Singapore, who participated in public protests in November
are not sure their future.

“The Singapore government forced me to leave Singapore as quickly as
possible,” Kyaw Soe told The Irrawaddy on Monday.

Meanwhile, The Strait Times newspaper reported on Saturday that
Singapore's Ministry of Home Affairs has warned Burmese political
activists not to ignore repeated police orders to stop illegal public
protests and anti-Burma activities.

A ministry spokesperson said that the right of a foreign national to work
or stay in Singapore is not a matter of entitlement or a right to be
secured by political demand and public pressure, and the activists
repeatedly ignored requests from government officials to meet to discuss
the group's conduct, according to the newspaper.

A spokesperson singled out the OBP which he said “has chosen to [conduct
demonstrations] in open and in persistent defiance of our laws.”

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

August 25, Inter Press Service
Burma:  No photo Op for Gambari - Marwaan Macan-Markar

A United Nations-led effort to push political reform in military-ruled
Burma plunged to a humiliating low on the weekend, raising questions about
the effectiveness of the world body’s special envoy to the country,
Ibrahim Gambari.

This shift was conveyed in the way Aung San Suu Kyi, the detained
pro-democracy leader, treated Gambari during his six-day mission, which
ended on Aug. 23. She refused to see him on at least two occasions. It was
a silence of Gandhian proportions for the Nobel Peace laureate and, for
the U.N. envoy, an unprecedented snub.

Deprived, as a result, was the photo opportunity that Gambari had used
after his three previous visits to Burma, over the past year, to give the
impression that he was making headway with Suu Kyi in paving the road for
political reform. The images of the Nigerian diplomat posing with the
63-year-old Suu Kyi, who has spent over 13 of the past 18 years under
house arrest, suggested she had confidence in the U.N.

But a scene outside the Rangoon home of Suu Kyi on Friday morning
confirmed that Gambari’s luck had run out. The leader of the opposition
National League for Democracy (NLD) party refused to open the gates of her
rambling colonial mansion to two of Gambari’s representatives who had come
to invite her for a meeting, after she had turned down an invitation at a
state guest house 48 hours before.

‘’On Friday morning, two of Gambari aides were seen by neighbours outside
the gate of Suu Kyi's residence, shouting Gambari's name. They left when
nobody came out to meet them,’’ reported ‘The Irrawaddy’, a current
affairs magazine run by Burmese journalists in exile, quoting the
Associated Press news agency.

Gambari also left the South-east Asian nation without another possible
photograph that may have suggested progress.

It was the second time that Gambari had been denied an audience with the
military leader Senior Gen. Than Shwe, who holds all the power in Burma.

‘’Mr. Gambari had always exploited the photo opportunity he had with Daw
Suu Kyi to give the impression that the political dialogue process that he
was leading for the U.N. was working,’’ says Zin Linn, a spokesman for the
National Coalition Government for the Union of Burma (NCGUB), the
democratically elected Burmese government forced into exile by the junta.

‘’But this time there was no photo. She has sent a strong message to the
Burmese people by refusing to meet Mr. Gambari,’’ Zin Linn explained in an
interview. ‘’She wants the people to know that they cannot rely on the
U.N. to bring results. They have to stand up on their own feet.’’

Other Burma watchers are as scathing. ‘’Unlike Gambari, Aung San Suu Kyi
refuses to be a pawn in the junta’s game,’’ says Debbie Stothard of
ALTSEAN, a regional body campaigning for human rights in Burma. ‘’This
confirms that she has lost confidence in Gambari. She has said so through
the only peaceful form of resistance available to her.’’

Gambari’s failure should ‘’be a wakeup call to the Security Council’s
members that they can no longer be conned by the junta,’’ Stothard told
IPS. ‘’Most of the key decisions makers at the U.N. used Gambari’s shuttle
diplomacy as an excuse not to act on Burma. But nothing has moved, and now
there is little left to hope for.’’

The world body, however, had different hopes when it sent Gambari to Burma
last year. That followed the international outrage at the junta’s harsh
crackdown of peaceful street demonstrations, led by tens of thousands of
Buddhist monks, on the streets of Rangoon last September. It was Gambari’s
third visit as a special political envoy.

The initial visit appeared to have made some headway, since Gambari met
Than Shwe and Suu Kyi and succeeded in getting the junta to appoint a
minister to be a liaison officer to conduct talks with Suu Kyi. That U.N.
mission fed a view that the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), as
the junta is officially known, was receptive to some change and genuine
reform.

But as 2007 drew to a close, the junta began to flex its political muscle
and reneged on some of the pledges made to the U.N. envoy as part of the
‘’roadmap’’ toward democracy. The junta’s old language that it would stick
to its seven-point plan to impose a ‘’discipline-flourishing’’ democracy
-- rather than an open and inclusive one that was part of the reform
agenda -- gained ground.

By mid-March, when Gambari returned to Burma for his third visit, he was
given a hostile reception by the junta. The information minister, Brig.
Gen. Kyaw Hsan, told the envoy that the SPDC would not accommodate a U.N.
request to amend the country’s draft constitution, enabling legitimate
political participation by the opposition, including Suu Kyi.

The SPDC stood firm in May, pushing ahead with a referendum fraught with
abuse and vote rigging to approve the new constitution, a week after Burma
was devastated by powerful Cyclone Nargis which killed tens of thousands.
It was a key step in the junta’s march toward achieving political
legitimacy at the 2010 general elections.

But for the Burmese opposition, the events in May only held out the
possibility of further oppression in a country that has been under the
grip of the military since March 1962. It has also crushed the hopes of
opposition leaders who won seats at the 1990 parliamentary elections -- in
which the NLD won a thumping majority that the junta refused to recognise.

‘’Mr. Gambari has let the junta get its way by supporting their agenda
[rather] than offering a political roadmap of his own,’’ says Zin Linn of
the NCGUB. ‘’We are not surprised by his failure.’’

____________________________________

August 25, Cutting Edge News Asia Desk
The lingering disaster in Burma
Reign of terror in Burma requires genuine U.N. action - not just official
visits - Benedict Rogers

On July 27, Nhkum Hkawn Din, a 15 year-old school girl in Kachin State,
northern Burma, was brutally gang-raped and then murdered by Burma Army
soldiers. Her skull was crushed beyond recognition, her eyes gouged out,
her throat cut, she was stabbed in her right rib cage and stomach, and all
her facial features were obliterated. Her body was found after a three-day
search, naked and mutilated, 200 meters from an army checkpoint near Nam
Sai village, Bamaw District. She was on her way to bring rice to her
brother.

Against this backdrop, UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari has just completed
another visit to Burma last week for more talks with the country’s brutal,
illegitimate military regime. But instead of taking the regime to task for
human rights violations, he spent two days talking with the regime and its
cronies, and just twenty minutes with the leaders of Burma’s democracy
movement, the National League for Democracy (NLD). Even though his
previous visits have yielded no change in the junta’s behavior, and
Burma’s human rights record continues to deteriorate, Gambari rejected
calls from activists to drop the diplomatic niceties and photo-calls and
set out unambiguously the requirements for change.

Instead he spent time talking with groups such as the Union of Myanmar
Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (UMFCCI), the major funder
of the regime’s brutal proxy militia group “Swan-Arr-Shin”. This group led
the regime’s efforts in attacking and killing peaceful monks and democracy
activists during and after last September's Saffron Revolution. According
to the US Campaign for Burma, Gambari also met with the Union Solidarity
and Development Association, a group comparable to Hitler's “Brown
Shirts,” that carried out an assassination attempt on Nobel Peace Prize
recipient Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in May 2003. During that attack dozens of
her party members were killed. Also on his schedule was a meeting with the
National Unity Party, the military-backed political party that lost
severely to the NLD in 1990 elections -- gaining only 10 out of 485 seats
in parliament.

Since 1990, there have been 37 visits by UN envoys to Burma – yet the
crisis in the country has worsened in that time. More than 30 resolutions
have been passed by the UN Human Rights Council and General Assembly, and
the Security Council has held past two presidential statements, with
little effect. Vague, timeless requests to the junta to engage in dialogue
with democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi have led nowhere. She has spent
more than 12 years under house arrest, and her detention has been extended
again. Earlier this year the regime said she deserved to be “flogged”. The
Generals are not people who are persuaded at cocktail parties.

Gambari’s efforts have clearly failed. Now, activists say, it is time for
the UN to set out some specific benchmarks for progress for the junta,
accompanied by deadlines. The first benchmark should be the release of
political prisoners, who currently number over 2,000. Many are in
extremely poor health due to bad prison conditions, mistreatment, torture
and the denial of medical care. In the past 20 years, 137 have died in
custody. This year alone, there have been 267 arbitrary arrests. The UN
should insist that the Generals release political prisoners before Ban
Ki-moon’s visit to Burma in December.

Further benchmarks should follow – such as an end to the military
offensive against civilians in eastern Burma which has destroyed 3,200
villages and displaced more than a million people since 1996, and an end
to the culture of impunity and the systematic and widespread use of rape
as a weapon of war against ethnic nationalities in Burma. Over a thousand
cases of rape have been documented in Burma’s ethnic areas, and many more
go unreported. The pattern is nationwide – Kachin, Chin, Shan, Karen,
Karenni and Mon women’s organisations have all documented cases. Last year
four schoolgirls in Kachin state were gang-raped by Burma Army soldiers –
and then arrested and charged with prostitution when they reported it. The
UN Security Council has recognized rape and sexual violence as a crime
against humanity in Resolution 1820 passed on 19 June this year –
something Mr. Gambari should have reminded the Generals this week.

Setting benchmarks, with realistic deadlines, would enable Mr Gambari – if
he is kept in his post—to evaluate, incrementally, the progress – or lack
thereof – that he is making. If the junta complies, so much the better.
But if it continues with its policies of ethnic cleansing and crimes
against humanity, bold action should be taken.

A universal arms embargo should be imposed through the Security Council –
and maximum pressure placed on China and Russia not to use their veto.
Major financial centres such as Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore, as well as
the European Union, should impose carefully targeted financial sanctions
against the Generals’ personal assets and investments. And the
international community should stop the diplomatic charade and call the
Generals by name for what they are: criminals. The prosecution of Sudan’s
leader Omar al-Bashir and the capture of Radovan Karadzic have set a
precedent. Burma’s Generals are guilty of every imaginable crime against
humanity, and should be brought to account in the International Criminal
Court or through another jurisdiction.

The regime’s credentials to represent Burma in the UN should also be
challenged. The junta has no legitimacy, having overwhelmingly lost
elections in 1990, manifestly rigged a referendum on a new constitution
earlier this year, and proven itself criminally negligent in its handling
of Cyclone Nargis. The junta ignored 41 warnings about the approaching
cyclone, initially rejected international offers of aid and then
restricted, obstructed and diverted relief. According to the UN, over a
million cyclone victims have still not received help. At least 2.5 million
are still homeless and over 140,000 dead. And now the UN says the regime
has been stealing millions of dollars of aid money through its
below-market fixed exchange rates. Burma is the world’s second major opium
producer and a leading producer of amphetamines – and the regime is
knee-deep in drugs. The junta is unfit to govern, and there is a
legitimate alternative in the form of those elected in 1990 now living as
a government in exile.

These may seem drastic measures, but the situation is dire. The regime has
destroyed twice as many ethnic villages as in Darfur, civilians are shot
at point-blank range, and forced labour, torture and the use of human
minesweepers is widespread. Burma has the highest number of forcibly
conscripted child soldiers in the world. It is widely believed that one
reason the regime denied aid to some cyclone victims was because they were
Karen. The regime has been conducting a campaign of ethnic cleansing
against the Karen for decades, and it may have used a natural disaster to
assist in its efforts.

Last week, two Members of Parliament elected in 1990 were arrested for
signing a letter to Ban Ki-moon. Several other signatories went into
hiding. The letter refers to the Secretary-General’s strong stand on
Zimbabwe: “We applaud the courage of the Secretary-General and his
expression of moral authority 
 We expect [the] Secretary-General [to]
also stand for the rights of the people of Burma, who were unable to
express their real aspirations in the referendum.” It continues: “At the
very least, we don’t want the United Nations siding with the dictators,
and forcing the people of Burma into an untenable position.”

The UN should not just call for the release of those arrested last week –
Ban Ki-moon and Gambari should read their letter carefully. They should
warn the Generals that if they do not change, calls for such action will
grow louder, and pressure on Burma’s protectors – China, India, Thailand
and the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) – will only grow
stronger. The status quo is unsustainable, and Gambari’s record is a
failure. Both he and the junta need to change their act.

Benedict Rogers is the author of A Land Without Evil: Stopping the
Genocide of Burma's Karen People (Monarch, 2004), and has visited Burma
and its borderlands more than 20 times. He also serves as Deputy Chairman
of the UK Conservative Party's Human Rights Commission.