BurmaNet News, October 1, 2008

[Editor]

October 1, 2008 Issue # 3568

INSIDE BURMA
DVB: NLD warned over ‘dictatorship’ remarks
Mizzima News: Two more opposition activists released
Mizzima News: Blogger produced before court again
Irrawaddy: Reports of rape surface in cyclone-devastated delta
Irrawaddy: Burma’s censors suspend two publications
IMNA: Ye township youth shot for allegedly cooperating with exile media
IMNA: Dozens of visitors arrested during wide scale raids in Insein Township

BUSINESS / TRADE
Irrawaddy: Chinese dam incurs KIO wrath
Xinhua: Burma to build beach resort airport to promote tourism
IMNA: New coalmine to open in Shan State, will be Burma’s largest

REGIONAL
IMNA: ENC calls on the international community to help starving people in
Chin State after crops are destroyed

INTERNATIONAL
AFP: US group studies potential war crimes by Myanmar military
Mizzima News: Religious freedom hanging in the balance in Burma

OPINION / OTHER
The Times (UK): Aid and water dry up in cyclone fear zone - Kenneth Denby
Kachin News Group: Living under duress in Kachin state


____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

October 1, Democratic Voice of Burma
NLD warned over ‘dictatorship’ remarks - Aye Nai

National League for Democracy leaders in Yenangyaung township, Magwe
division, have been warned by local authorities over their use of the word
‘dictatorship’ to describe the military regime.

Yenangyaung NLD leaders were summoned by the local electoral commission
yesterday morning and given a warning due to phrases used by speakers at
an event to mark the party’s 20th anniversary, according to
vice-chairperson Daw Khin Saw Htay.

"On the 27th, we held an event for the party's 20th anniversary at U Khin
Win's house,” Khin Saw Htay said.

“They said their informers had told them the phrases had been included in
our speeches.”

The officials listed 13 examples of unacceptable phrases that had been used.

“One point was 'the dismantling of the SPDC military government',” Khin
Saw Htay said.

“U Khin Win responded that he had used the word 'dictatorship' but he said
'for dictatorship never to re-emerge in the future',” she said.

“As to why he used 'the SPDC military government', as it was the SPDC
which held the 1990 election, we only want to talk to the SPDC government,
that’s what chairman U Khin Win said."

Khin Saw Htay said she told the officials that the NLD was following its
principles in working towards a democratic government.

“The establishment of a government that guarantees basic human rights is
the NLD's aim, and therefore stopping the re-emergence of dictatorship is
also the aim of the NLD,” she said.

“We are not working because we are paid to do so, we are doing it honestly
and truthfully, and we are an organisation working for democracy with
strong faith,” Khin Saw Htay said she had told the officials.

“You authorities are following orders from above. You are doing it for the
sake of order and duty. For us, in democracy, we have the right to
disagree. We have the right to express our desires to the top."

More members of the NLD organising committee were summoned last night for
a meeting today.

Khin Saw Htay did not say if the authorities had threatened an further
action against party members.

____________________________________

October 1, Mizzima News
Two more opposition activists released – Phanida

Burma's military government on Saturday released two more opposition
members from detention as part of amnesty granted to 9002 prisoners across
the country.

Two members of the opposition party – National League for Democracy – who
were detained in jails in upper Burma's Sagaing division were released on
Saturday, party spokesperson said.

Aung Khin and Maung Chaw, both youth members of the NLD were released from
the Indaw Township and Kalaymyo township prisons respectively, NLD
spokesperson Nyan Win said.

"They have been released for sure. They stayed one night in Dr. Thein
Win's house in Kalaymyo and went back to their hometowns," said the Nyan
Win.

Burma's military rulers on September 23 announced that it gave amnesty to
9002 prisoners including a few political prisoners, as to give them a
second to be useful to the nation through their participation in the
upcoming election in 2010.

However, the junta short-lived the freedom of captain Win Htein, who was
released from Katha prison in Kachin state by arresting him in less than
24 hours of his release. Win Htein had served as the personal assistant to
detained pro-democracy leader Daw Aung San Su Kyi.

____________________________________

October 1, Mizzima News
Blogger produced before court again - Phanida

A popular Burmese blogger and writer Nay Phone Latt, who had been detained
in Insein prison, has once again been produced in court again.

The court on Tuesday, held hearings on one of the cases of the many
charges against the blogger - under section 505(b) of the Penal Code
inducing crime against public tranquillity.

The Burmese authorities have dragged the trial of the blogger, which it
began since early July.

The blogger's mother said a policeman from Rangoon's Bahan police station
on Tuesday testified as the prosecution witness.

"Without evidences the policeman testified that my son got involved in
demonstrations in court," she added.

Nay Phone Latt has reportedly been kept in solitary confinement in
notorious Insein prison since early July, when the court started hearing
his case. He was never allow to move out of the cell, his mother said.

"He is disappointed as he is in solitary confinement. Maung Weik [business
tycoon] is in the next cell. But he is allowed to go outside of the cell.
My son and Zarganar are not allowed to do so. Though he is young, I am
worried of his health in the prison environment," she added.

Nay Phone Latt was arrested and detained on January 29, and was charged
under 505(b) of the Penal Code, section 32(a), 36 of the Video Law and
section 33 (a), 38 of the Electronic Law.

The hearing was adjourned on Tuesday by the court, which also held
hearings on the cases of 35 students of the 88-generation, including Ko
Min Ko Naing after there was an argument between the judge and the accused
on addressing them as defendants.

"The student leaders reacted immediately as soon as the judge referred to
them as defendants. They said they are just the accused and could not be
referred to as defendants before being formally charged by the court after
it hears prosecution and defence witnesses. The court had to adjourn the
hearing after that," a family member of one of the 88-Generation Students,
Ko Ko Gyi, said.

Similarly, other 88-Generation Students, Sithu Maung and six other, were
also produced before the court on Tuesday. They were accused of staging
demonstrations against a sudden price hike on fuel.

Advocate Khin Maung Shein said that they have presented an argument for
the discharge of the case against the student leaders, which are made
under section 124 (a) of the Penal Code, disaffection towards State and
government, as no case against the accused has been made out which would
warrant their conviction.

"We presented our argument made under section 253 of the Criminal
Procedure Code (CrPC) to consider discharging the accused from the case on
hearing the last witness.

"The accused have to suffer a lot because of these wrongful charges. So we
argued that the accused should be discharged as no case against them has
been made out under section 124(a) of the Penal Code," he added.

The authorities, however, changed the charges made against the student
leaders later from the previous 124(a) of the Penal Code to new charges
under sections 505(b), inducing crime against public tranquillity, 143 and
145, unlawful assembly, and 295, insulting religion, of the Penal Code.

These student leaders face prison terms ranging from two to a maximum of 8
years if found guilty.

____________________________________

October 1, Irrawaddy
Reports of rape surface in cyclone-devastated delta – Kyi Wai

Reports of rape and other abuses of women are surfacing as communities in
Burma’s Irrawaddy delta continue to recover from May’s Cyclone Nargis.

Women were particularly vulnerable in the cyclone and its aftermath, when
social order broke down. Many complain their plight was ignored by local
authorities and the military.

One 20-year-old woman from a village in Laputta District said three men
who responded to her cries for help the day after the cyclone raped and
tried to rob her.

One villager reported seeing two men armed with knives rape a 15-year-old
girl before drowning her. “I was afraid to try and help the girl and I
pretended to be dead,” he confessed.

The rapes and killing continued weeks after the cyclone, as devastated
communities tried to restore normal life, according to villagers.

A resident of Gyin Yah village in Laputta District said that a month after
the cyclone he had discovered the body of a teenage girl who had been
raped and killed, then dumped in a rice paddy.

Some villagers accused military authorities of trying to prevent news of
rape and pillage becoming public. Villages allowing news of the abuses to
escape were threatened with destruction, sources said.

One man from Kyane Gone village in Laputta District said a soldier had
tried to drag away his daughter as they waited for aid at a military base.
He had complained to an officer, who had angrily sent him away.

A woman survivor from Sate Gyi village in Laputta Township said: “I don’t
dare return to my home. I’m the only woman survivor and would be the only
woman among eight men.”

____________________________________

October 1, Irrawaddy
Burma’s censors suspend two publications – Lawi Weng and Moe Myint Yan

Two weekly publications have been suspended by Burma’s notorious
censorship board, after being accused of violating rules and regulations,
according to local journalists.

True News was ordered to suspend publication for two months after a large
photograph depicting a Burmese child working on a construction site in
Thailand appeared on the front page of its Tuesday issue.

The second journal, The Action Times, was ordered to suspend publication
for one month after defying a censorship board instruction to drop a brief
report on dissident journalist Win Tin, who was released last week after
19 years imprisonment.

“The Press Scrutiny and Registration Board summoned the editors of True
News and The Action Times [on Tuesday] and ordered them to stop publishing
their journals for two months and one month respectively,” said a
Rangoon-based journalist with connections to staff at the two
publications.

The editor of The Action Times declined to comment on the ban on his
publication when approached by The Irrawaddy. The journal was ordered to
drop a brief report on the release of Win Tin and a profile of the
journalist—formerly editor of the influential newspaper Hanthawaddy and
vice-chairman of the Writers’ Union, who served a total of 19 years in
prison for his part in the 1988 pro-democracy uprising.

“I think this is why The Action Times has been banned for a month,” a
Rangoon journalist told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday.

A freelance journalist in Rangoon who requested anonymity told The
Irrawaddy that the censorship board’s order suspending the publication of
True News for two months was related to the sensitive photograph published
on its front page.

The caption under the photograph read: “A Burmese child working on a
construction site in Phuket, Thailand.”

The censorship board reportedly accused the editors of failing to submit
clear draft layouts to its office for inspection.

According to the board’s regulations, every journal in Burma must submit a
draft of its final layout with clear photographs, captions and pullouts.

However, another source, who claimed to have spoken to a reporter at True
News, said the censorship board had passed the photo and its caption, so
the journal published it.

According to a source within the Press Scrutiny and Registration Division,
certain authorities were annoyed by the photo and the censorship board’s
failure to spot it.

The source said the head of the censorship board, Maj Tint Swe, was
reportedly admonished by Minister of Information Kyaw Hsan over the
incident.

____________________________________

October 1, Independent Mon News Agency
Ye township youth shot for allegedly cooperating with exile media

A boy in southern Ye Township, Mon State, has been hospitalized after
being shot by a captain of Infantry Battalion No. 299. The captain accused
the boy, A Sorn, 17, of being in contact with exile media groups, and shot
him as he attempted to flee.

Witnesses said the captain stopped A Sorn as the boy drove by on a
motorbike. It’s not clear what the captain said to the boy after stopping
him. The two drove to the center of Kumai village, however, where the
captain accused the A Sorn of cooperating with exile media and shot him as
he fled.

“Everybody saw it because the captain shot A Sorn in the center of the
village,” said a villager from Kumai who witnessed the events. “The
captain told A Sorn that they had been watching him for a few months.”

A Sorn is being treated in Ye Hospital. His relatives worry about his
condition because he was shot in the center of the body, from very close
range.

Southern Ye is home to the worst human rights situation in Mon State. It
is classified as a “black area,” free-fire zone. Villagers are subjected
to a variety of travel restrictions and forced labor, and land and crops
are frequently seized. Two month ago, a family fled to a refugee camp on
the Thai-Burma border after two of its sons, ages twelve and fourteen,
were arrested and tortured after being accused of helping Mon rebels in
the area.

In March 2008, IB No. 31 shot two workers on a plantation in Toe That Ywar
Thit village for violating a travel restriction. One of the workers was
killed at the scene.

In 2007, soldiers in Kumai village also fired shots into the ground in
front of a Mon student in an attempt to intimidate him into letting the
soldiers use his motorbike. The boy let them use the bike.

____________________________________

October 1, Independent Mon News Agency
Dozens of visitors arrested during wide scale raids in Insein Township

Dozens of visitors to Insein Township, in the former capital of Rangoon,
were arrested last night during raids by police, soldiers and township
Peace and Development Council officials.

Guests who had not already applied for permission to stay in Insein were
arrested. Typically, visitors from outside a particular town are required
to notify authorities upon their arrival, if they wish to stay over night.

People arrested were told they could pay between 2,000 and 10,000 kyat and
be freed the next morning. Those who could not pay would face
interrogation and between one week and on month’s detention. No one had
been freed as of noon the day after the arrests.

“At least a hundred people were arrested at homes with guests that had not
applied for permission,” an Insein resident told IMNA. “They forced
residents to wait outside while authorities searched their homes. They
were looking for explosives, but they found none.”

The searches followed two recent bombings in Rangoon. On September 21st, a
bomb exploded outside the Tharmew police station. No one was injured. A
few days later, on September 25th, a bomb exploded outside the Old City
Hall building, wounding seven. Regime authorities say they have also been
regularly finding bombs in public areas in Rangoon since the middle of
September.

The government alleges that dissidents on the Thai-Burma border are
responsible for the explosives, and have tightened security along the road
from Rangoon to the new capital of Naypyidaw. Police in townships crossed
by the road have been order to increase their vigilance, including Insein,
Hlaing Thayar, and Shwepyitha Townships.

The shadowy Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors (VBSW), however, have taken
credit for the bombings. VBSW also announced that it would be targeting
regime authorities, and the group asked people to stay away from
government employees during the anniversary of last year’s monk led
demonstration against the regime.

In September 2007, at least thirty people were killed, more than seventy
went missing and thousands arrested during the blood suppression of wide
scale peaceful protests.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

October 1, Irrawaddy
Chinese dam incurs KIO wrath – Saw Yan Naing

A Chinese-Burmese joint project to construct a series of hydroelectric
dams in Kachin State has met with resistance from the Kachin Independence
Organization (KIO), said sources close to the armed ethnic group.

The KIO, which signed a ceasefire with the Burmese junta in 1994, was
reportedly unhappy that several projects to build dams in Kachin State in
northern Burma were agreed in 2007 between the Burmese regime and
representatives of the China Datang Corporation (CDC) without consulting
the KIO, which claims control over the area.

Tensions soared two weeks ago when Chinese authorities refused to pay tax
to the KIO, which responded by deploying soldiers around the two dams in
progress—Tarpein 1 and Tarpein 2—which are being constructed on the
Tarpein River in Momauk Township by Burma’s Ministry of Electric Power No
1 and a conglomerate of Chinese companies, including China Datang
Corporation.

Soon after two battalions of armed KIO soldiers took up positions around
the dams the Chinese construction workers on the project fled, causing
construction to be suspended.

Sources close to the KIO said that the workers returned and the project
resumed about one week ago after Chinese authorities paid 1.5 million yuan
(US $220,916) to the KIO. The negotiation was reportedly mediated by newly
appointed Commander of Northern Command Brig-Gen Soe Win.

The Tarpein 1 hydroelectric dam is designed to generate a capacity of 240
megawatts and is located about 3.5 miles (6 km) from Momauk Township,
while Tarpein 2, which should generate 168 megawatts, is located about 6
miles (10 km) downstream of Tarpein 1.

According to a Kachin environmentalist, Naw La, who is coordinator of the
Chiang Mai-based Kachin Environmental Organization, about 30 percent of
the Tarpein 1 construction has been completed.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Wednesday, Naw La said, “Our concern is that
the authorities don’t allow local residents any involvement in the
decision-making process. Not only that, the profits from the dams will
only benefit the Burmese government and Chinese authorities—not the local
residents.

Detrimental environmental effects—such as deforestation and flooding—will
most likely result if the dams are completed, he added.

The Burmese junta has agreed a plan with Chinese representatives to build
a total of nine hydroelectric dams in Kachin State, the largest of
which—the 3,600-megawatt Myitsone hydropower project— is due to be built
about 26 miles (42 km) north of Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin state,
according to the Kachin Environmental Organization.

____________________________________

October 1, Xinhua (China)
Burma to build beach resort airport to promote tourism

Burma is planning to build an airport at Ngwesaung, a famous beach resort
in the country's southwestern division of Ayeyawaddy, to facilitate local
and foreign travellers visiting the tourist site, a local weekly reported
on Wednesday.

The airport with a runway of 2.4 km will be built at Thazinmaw area, which
is 600 metres from the Ngwesaung Hotel Zone, the 7-Day News said.

With a coast of extending as about 14 km, the Ngwesaung stands the nearest
beach resort from Yangon, the former capital of Burma, attracting a large
number of foreign visitors rather than local's.

The number of tourists coming to Ngwesaung has exceeded that arriving at
the 5-km Ngapali beach resort, which lies on Western Rakhine coast near
Thandwe and traditionally attracted the largest number of travellers in
the past, according to tourism industry circle.

Once the airport is built, the Ngwesaung beach resort will become the
second which is accessible by air after Ngapali.

Following Ngapali and Ngwesaung, the 2-km Chaungtha, which is also in the
Ayeyawaddy division, stands as the third beach resort in Burma that
invited large number of visitors.

For the development of Ngwesaung beach resort, the tourism authorities are
increasing implementation of hotel projects and other tourism-related
infrastructure such as prawn-breeding ponds, the hoteliers noted, adding
that the tourism projects in Ngwesaung will create more job opportunities
for local people.

According to statistics, Ngwesaung beach resort has 21 hotels with 800
rooms, while Chaungtha 14 with 300 rooms and Ngapali 12 with 200 rooms.

Meanwhile, Burma is making efforts to revive its tourism industry severely
affected by May storm and the measures taken for the purpose include
adding of more hotels in beach resorts.

Although it has been over three months after the cyclone smashed Burma,
tourist arrivals during the period fell 90 per cent compared with the
previous years correspondingly.

According to official statistics, tourist arrivals in Burma in the fiscal
year 2007-08 which ended in March totalled 288,776, of whom 131,784 came
by air, while 154,500 arrived by land across border.

____________________________________

October 1, Independent Mon News Agency
New coalmine to open in Shan State, will be Burma’s largest

A new coalmine in Mongma, Shan State, operated by AAA Company, is to open
at the end of this year, said an announcement in the regime-controlled 7
Day News Journal on October 1st.

According the report, the mine will be the largest in Burma, and will
supply sufficient coal to meet domestic demands for thirty years.
According to a businessman quoted by the journal, the mine location is
home to a sixty-four cubic foot thick, two-mile wide and nine-mile long
deposit of high-quality bituminous coal.

There were twenty coalmines operating in northern Shan state, with the
highest quality coal at the Mongma site. According to regime statistics
the country has eighty-two mines that produced 282,655 tons of coal in the
2007-2008 fiscal year. These numbers mark a 19.5 percent production
increase over 2006-2007.

Coal is an important export for Burma, netting $647 million USD in
2007-2008, up two hundred percent over $297 million in 2006-2007. Official
figures rate mining production as Burma’s third largest source of foreign
exchange, after natural gas and agricultural products.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

October 1, Independent Mon News Agency
ENC calls on the international community to help starving people in Chin
State after crops are destroyed

More than a hundred thousand people in Chin State, in northwest Burma,
face starvation after a plague of rats destroyed crops in the area.
Burma’s military government is offering no help, says the Ethnic
Nationalities Council (ENC).

According to an ENC statement made on September 30th, people from more
than twenty villages – one fourth of Chin State’s population – face food
shortages and disease. More than two thousand ethnic Chin people have fled
to India in search of food. At least thirty children have died from lack
of food, though the number is thought to be higher.

The ENC, a Thailand-based exile group comprised of representatives from
Burma’s many ethnic groups, called upon the international community for
support. “We call on UN agencies such as the World Food Programme, UN OCHA
[United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs], UNDP
[UN Development Program] and other international aid organization to
provide food and assistance to people who have faced food shortages since
2006, while the military government ignores the case,” ENC General
Secretary Duwa Mahkaw Hkun Sa told IMNA.

“The food crisis in Chin State has reached a point where immediate action
is warranted in order to prevent a human tragedy of great proportions. The
international community should now act immediately on this crisis to avert
a Nargis-like situation,” says Dr. Salai Lian Hmung Sakhong, ENC Vice
Chairman, in an official statement by the group. ENC also called upon the
government of India and Mizoram to extend assistance to avert a
humanitarian tragedy in Chin State.

The junta, on the other hand, has disregarded the situation and is
providing no help to Chin State. It has even prevented international NGOs
from providing aid to the region, says Duwa Mahkaw Hkun Sa. The ENC
statement addressed the junta’s restrictions, demanding the junta
“immediately to allow complete and unfettered access to the affected area
in Chin state and cooperate fully with aid organizations and provide them
a conductive environment for a meaningful and effective relief efforts in
Chin State.”

The situation is likely to get worse, as the rats have destroyed rice
paddies and other farmland. The crop destruction comes at a time when
Burma is already struggling to recover from the loss of twenty percent of
its rice paddies, which were destroyed by Cyclone Nargis in May. The boom
in the rat population, and the attendant impact on agriculture of the
region, is being caused by the life cycle of “Melocanna Baccifera,” a type
of bamboo that flowers once every fifty years and, according to a report
by the Chin Human Rights organization, covers one fifth of Chin State.
After flowering in 2006, the bamboo produced a fruit with a large
nutrient-rich seed. Rats fed on the seeds, their population skyrocketed
and the animals eventually descended upon farms looking for food.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

October 1, Agence France Presse
US group studies potential war crimes by Myanmar military

An independent US group is to carry out unprecedented studies to determine
whether Myanmar's military rulers, accused of rampant human rights abuses,
have committed international crimes.

The Center for Constitutional Democracy at Indiana University's school of
law said it would launch the research based on anecdotal evidence of
"severe mistreatment" of marginalized ethnic groups by the junta.

"At this stage of the project, I can't honestly say that there are
international crimes," the center's executive director, David Williams,
told AFP by telephone.

"What I can say is there may be, and part of our goal would be to gather
the evidence and try to come out with some objective conclusions about
whether there are or not," he said.

The center's goal, he said, was to make focused research "in areas where
perhaps it is most likely that international crimes were committed."

Only the Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) can determine
whether international crimes, such as war crimes and crimes against
humanity, have been committed by any individual or group.

So far, Williams said, there has been no institutional focus on possible
international crimes committed by Myanmar's junta, which imposed a bloody
crackdown of pro-democracy protests in September earning global
condemnation.

The crackdown -- according to United Nations figures -- left 31 people
dead and 74 others missing, and resulted in thousands of arrests.

The military rulers had also come under international fire and were called
"heartless" by some humanitarian groups for initially not allowing foreign
aid when a cyclone left 138,000 people dead or missing in May.

Myanmar also houses more than 2,100 political prisoners, including
democracy icon and Nobel peace prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, who has
spent more than 12 of the last 18 years under house arrest.

Williams said that although the ICC had not initiated any study on the
military junta's record so far, "ours might be a good place for them to
get started.

"It might help the various investigators know where to go and what
allegations to examine and so forth," he said.

When asked whether in his personal opinion some of the junta's actions
could be deemed as international crimes, Williams said: "What I might be
able to say is that it looks to me, in my professional opinion, like there
is a good chance that it is.

"And it makes sense therefore to bring a prosecution because there is
enough evidence that a court should be able to see it."

The university group's staff had been for the last six years helping
ethnic groups inside Myanmar -- at their request -- draw up constitutional
reforms in their struggle to win greater freedom and rights.

Law professor Williams had smuggled himself into Myanmar on various
occasions and worked on constitutional reforms with the Karen ethnic
group, fighting the government since 1947 in the world's longest running
civil war.

"I am hearing endless stories about how the military government is
murdering villagers, it's blowing up rice paddies so that they dry out,
it's setting fires to villages, it's laying mines in those villages so
that when the people come back some of them get blown up," he said.

"The result is that they have to move often to hills and find a new place
to build a village and start growing rice. That means in a relatively
short period of time there is famine because old rice paddies have to be
abandoned."

Williams said while he did not witness the Myanmar military units
attacking the Karen guerilla resistance units, he saw "evidence of the
military going after the civilian population.

"That's just the tip of the iceberg in itself and that doesn't constitute
conclusive evidence of an international crime but it makes you think," he
said.

____________________________________

October 1, Mizzima News
Religious freedom hanging in the balance in Burma

The United States State Department has accused Burma's governing junta of
being guilty of systematic religious persecution against members of the
dominant Buddhist community as well religious minorities throughout the
country.

In Friday's release of its 10th Annual Report on International Religious
Freedom, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice again identified Burma as one
of eight "Countries of Particular Concern." Burma has been classified as
such in each of the ten years of publication.

With specific reference to the monk-led protests of 2007, the report calls
out the generals on their attempt to "systematically restrict efforts by
Buddhist clergy to promote human rights and political freedom."

Citing the numerous raids of monasteries in the weeks and months since the
Saffron Revolution, in addition to the physical abuse suffered by several
members of the clergy at the hands of government security forces, the
State Department chastises the junta for severely curtailing religious
freedom of expression and association.

"Members of the Sangha were not allowed to preach sermons pertaining to
politics. Religious lectures could not contain any words, phrases, or
stories reflecting political views," according to the study's findings.

Meanwhile, adherence to a form of Buddhism in accordance with the
interests of the military government continues to be a goal of the regime
as well as a means of personal advancement for those deemed to be
dutifully toeing the line.

Though crediting the government with apparently no longer subscribing to a
policy of forced conversion, the reports authors spare no corner in their
disclosure of the numerous means through with the regime seeks the
conversion of non-Buddhists to Buddhism.

Potential benefits to be enjoyed by obliging Buddhists within Burma's
tightly controlled social network are said to include favoritism for
promotion within government and military ranks as well as a loosening of
restrictions on proselytizing religious doctrine when compared to the
working environments of adherents to other systems of belief such as
Christianity and Islam.

The report does acknowledge that government promotion of Buddhism to the
detriment of minority religions is well-entrenched in the annals of modern
Burmese history, with attempts under the democratically elected government
of Prime Minister U Nu an expanding component of the fabric of Burmese
politics in the latter 1950s and early 1960s.

However, in a relatively new development, the study finds that there is a
growing prejudice on the part of the state against citizens of South Asian
origin, of which followers of Islam comprise a significant percentage of
the population.

Meanwhile, "Christian groups continued to have trouble obtaining
permission to buy land or build new churches in most regions," according
to the findings.

Burma's Rohingya Muslims are singled out for their persistent targeting by
the regime, a population that is still not even eligible to obtain
National Registration Cards indicating they are in fact a component of
Burmese society.

Additionally, "Since 1988 the Government permits only three marriages per
year per village in the primarily Rohingya townships of Maungdaw and
Buthidaung in northern Rakhine State," discloses the study, "and each
marriage requires the approval of the Regional Military Commander."

In Washington D.C., Rice told reporters, "The United States will continue
to actively promote religious freedom as essential to human dignity, a
robust civil society, and democratic development."

"But we are concerned by efforts to promote a so-called defamation of
religions concept, which has been the focus of numerous resolutions passed
at the United Nations," continued the Secretary of State. "Instead of
protecting religious practice and promoting tolerance, this concept seeks
to limit freedom of speech and that could undermine the standards of
international religious freedom."

China, India, Indonesia, Russia and Vietnam are also singled out in the
report as countries of "significant interest" to the United States in the
realm of religious persecution.

Each of these five countries is a member of United Nations Secretary Ban
Ki-moon's 'Group of Friends' regarding U.N. initiatives targeting the
crisis prone Southeast Asian country.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

October 1, The Times (UK)
Aid and water dry up in cyclone fear zone - Kenneth Denby

Relief efforts have helped, but Cyclone Nargis left its mark, writes
Kenneth Denby in Ahgnu, Burma

A gale blew through the village of Ahgnu - and the effect it had was
devastating.

Not the physical damage, for the winds were no stronger than 40mph and
even the feeblest of the palm and bamboo shelters remained intact. The
chaos was in the minds of the villagers - 1,500 poor farmers and fishermen
stricken by horror far out of proportion to the strength of the storm.

Men ran about, attempting to secure their homes with guy ropes attached to
trees. Children screamed and huddled inside and mothers fled to the
village monastery.

"We kneeled down and prayed to be protected from the wind," said one woman
in the riverside village east of the Rangoon River. "Everyone was so
afraid. We prayed that this would not be Nargis all over again."

It is five months since Cyclone Nargis tore across the Irrawaddy delta and
the city of Rangoon. On the face of it, the catastrophe has been brought
under control. After early obstruction by Burma's military Government, a
large international aid effort has relieved the worst effects of the
disaster and begun the job of rebuilding. Food, medicines and shelter are
flowing into the delta, with no secondary disaster from hunger or disease,
as many had feared.

Outside Burma, the catastrophe is a fading memory; after a surge of
donations in the early weeks, new funds for aid groups have dwindled to a
trickle.

But the cyclone is still doing its damage - to livelihoods, education and
health, as well as through the terror lingering in the minds of those who
survived it. And the people of the Irrawaddy delta are no better placed to
resist a future cyclone than they were five months ago. "These new houses
we have made now cannot stand another serious storm," says a man named Hla
Thaing, in Ahgnu. "It would be hell to face it all over again."

Like much else in Burma, it comes down to a fundamental problem: the
Government, in various incarnations, has tyrannised the country for 46
years. For three weeks after the cyclone struck on May 2, Senior General
Than Shwe and his junta allowed only a small number of foreign aid workers
to travel into the devastated areas. A natural disaster became an
international political confrontation as longstanding disgust at the
oppressiveness of the regime fused with fresh anger at its neglect of
cyclone victims.

Then, on May 25, the visiting UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki Moon, secured a
promise from General Than Shwe that foreign aid workers would be allowed
into the delta. The governments of the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (Asean) brokered a comprehensive aid plan with the UN and the
generals, and since then the humanitarian effort has gone relatively
smoothly.

Thousands of foreign aid workers, representing scores of UN and
independent organisations, have gone into the delta. Although permission
must be sought a few days in advance, it is rarely declined. In terms of
the number of contacts it has with the Burmese Government, to make
decisions on everything from rice imports and medical supplies to the
distribution of ducks to stricken villages, the international community
has never had such a close relationship with the suspicious and isolated
regime.

There have been cases of malnutrition among children and of cholera,
typhoid and malaria, but not significantly more than one would expect in
Burma in a normal year. An agricultural disaster appears to have been
averted. Despite the inundation of salt water and the deaths of many of
the water buffalo used for ploughing, 97 per cent of fields affected by
the cyclone have been planted, according to the United Nations Food and
Agriculture Organisation.

They will probably yield less grain than usual, partly because of a
shortage of fertilisers, but the shortfall will be made up in other parts
of the country which produce a surplus of rice.

Either because of the action of the international community, or because
the fears were exaggerated in the first place, there has been no second
wave of deaths - which is not to say that the cyclone operation can yet be
judged a success. One potentially deadly problem lies ahead: a lack of
drinking water during Burma's dry season. In the wet months water is so
abundant that all that is necessary is to put out jars and watch them
fill. The rainy season peters out in the middle of October, however,
forcing villages to turn for fresh water to the beautiful lotus-festooned
ponds which they all have.

But the cyclone inundated them with sea water and, though they have been
drained repeatedly, many remain salty and undrinkable. It may take a year
or two to flush them out; it may be that the cyclone has permanently
altered the water table. Either way, many communities could run out of
drinking water by the end of the year.

"If the problem really is widespread and if nothing is done to fix it,
then people will die of thirst," Larry James, a water expert contracted to
the Adventist Development and Relief Agency, said.

Money is drying up almost as fast as water. The UN's first emergency
appeal was supported generously, but a second call for $481 million (£
270m) has been only half met - meaning that the agencies will be able to
carry out emergency relief but not the second wave of reconstruction to
set communities on their own feet.

"People have roofs over their heads, they can put food on the table and
there's somewhere for their kids to go to school," says Andrew Kirkwood,
of the British charity Save the Children. "But a huge number of livelihood
assets were lost - fishing boats, nets, livestock. The irony is that if
you don't replace those as well, you end up with people who, in the long
run, are going to be more dependent on more, expensive aid."

Lurking in the background is the deepest fear of all - another cyclone, as
strong, or stronger. Nargis was unprecedented in Burmese history, but
unpredictable weather patterns make it impossible to rule out a repeat,
and the people of the delta are as unprepared now as they were in May.

"The old people here have lived through a lot," said one Burmese aid
worker. "They experienced the fighting between the Japanese and the
British, and they survived. But they are afraid now; more afraid of the
cyclone than of war."

_______________________________

October 1, Kachin News Group
Living under duress in Kachin state - Shyamal Sarkar

The Burmese military junta seems to have singled out Kachin State for some
harsh treatment, one reason for which could be the daring level of
dissidence among the student community, which has been repeatedly
troubling the regime through poster campaigns, right under the very noses
of junta officials.

The dissident students owing allegiance to the All Kachin Students Union
(AKSU) have on a number of occasions in the past year put up posters
demanding the ouster of the military dictators, freeing political
prisoners, demanding a tripartite dialogue, putting a halt to environment
unfriendly projects in the state, self determination rights among other
demands, which are not new. Not just posters, activists are known to take
to the streets either early in the morning or late at night and spray
paint walls of government buildings, schools, colleges, markets and other
key places making the same demands. The posters were put up despite the
high alert in the township sounded by the junta since August.

The periodic movement carried out with precision has had junta officials
including the police running from pillar to post trying to tear down the
posters or white washing the spray painted walls, lest residents start
getting ideas and join the angry students in their campaign against the
junta.

The posting of a new Commander in the Northern Command, Maj-Gen Soe Win,
who has taken charge of Kachin State, seems to have been done with a brief
from the junta brass to come down on dissident activity with a heavy hand
and keep people of the state on a leash.

He has gone about his mission with gusto, not uncommon among enthusiastic
military officers of the regime. In the wake of students pasting
anti-regime posters to denounce the 20th anniversary of the coup in the
country on September 18, the Commander imposed night curfew in Myitkyina
the capital of Kachin State from 10 p.m. to teach people a lesson. Then
the harassment followed.

The police began rounding up people on the streets even before 10 p.m.
before the curfew came into force. The idea was to create panic among
people. To further hurt residents, the arrested began to be fined heavily
to the tune of Kyat 10,000, equivalent to US $ 8. Shops were ordered to
down shutters by 9 p.m. The police was taken to task by the Commander
because they were unable to prevent activists from putting up posters.

In an effort to nab dissidents and check their activities the Military
Affairs Security Unit (Sa-Ya-Pha) was told by the Commander to offer a
reward of 100,000 Kyat equivalent to US $ 84 to anyone providing
information about activists.

The form of harassment since the new Commander took over has been varied,
but all are intent to keep people in the state under the thumb of the
junta.

For instance, of a sudden junta officials began searching guest houses and
hotels and started making arbitrary arrests of people they suspected. The
police in Myitkyina began checking hotels which did not report overnight
guests to the authorities. The hotels which allow prostitutes to operate
came especially under the scanner. Prostitutes and guests were hauled away
to police stations charged and detained. The prostitutes were released
later. Even couples dating in parks or on roadsides were not spared.

People in Kachin state as such have been living on the edge. Suddenly the
junta authorities decided that subscribers would have to shell out the
costs of changing numbers of landline telephones in Myitkyina. The order
issued stated that telephones starting with the code number 25 would be
changed to 20 and subscribers would have to pay over 550,000 Kyat
equivalent to US $ 464 each by September 30 to the State Telecommunication
Office in the township.

The reason behind the change in number had to do with disruptions on
landline telephones starting with the code number 25 being operated with
China-made Telephone Service Operating Machines. These had to be replaced
with a new Israel manufactured Telephone Service Operating Machines.
Normally, the expense ought to be borne by the telephone department but
here subscribers were fleeced, in all probability to save on government
revenue or pocket the funds meant for the change.


>From whichever angle one views the activities of the junta in Kachin State

it is apparent that the people are at the receiving end and left holding
the wrong end of the stick.

The Township Municipal Office in Myitkyina has been collecting increasing
municipal taxes from residents but they are not getting the desired
services whereas army officials do. While residents and shops and
establishment owners pay enhanced tax for garbage collection, the civic
body accords priority to the junta's Northern Command military
headquarters in the township. Despite increased taxes the municipality has
done nothing to enhance its fleet of garbage trucks. Only three trucks are
in working condition.

Laws are flexible and used to suit the needs of the junta authorities.
Without notice traffic police began seizing Chinese manufactured
motorcycle rickshaws (three wheelers) called the Tong-bee-car in
Myitkyina. All this while the traffic police have been levying a charge of
3,000 Kyat equivalent to US $ 2.5 on drivers operating unlicensed three
wheelers. In a town where all three wheelers are unlicensed the very act
of seizing them becomes meaningless because there are no provisions to
provide a license.

It is such repression that has students up in arms and recently led to an
instance where a traffic policeman was thrashed by irate people when the
police was seizing unlicensed motorcycles in Myitkyina. The Township Land
Transportation Department (Ka-Nya-Na) announced it would issue license for
motorcycles till the end of October. But most unlicensed motorcycle owners
are not even remotely interested because of the high fees pegged by the
junta.

The high handedness of the junta continues in Kachin State despite the
areas being under the control of the Kachin Independence Organisation
(KIO), which boasts an armed wing. The KIO, which has a ceasefire
agreement with the junta, has always appeased the regime given the
business ventures it operates courtesy the regime and the wealth it
enjoys. Of late, after supporting the junta's referendum on the draft
constitution, the KIO seems to be toeing the regime's line even more
vehemently.