BurmaNet News, December 11, 2008

[Editor]

December 11, 2008, Issue #3616


INSIDE BURMA
DVB: Lawyers denied permission to meet Daw Suu
DVB: Over 100 migrants from Arakan arrested
AP: Myanmar releases opposition activist after 8 weeks
Irrawaddy: Is UWSA preparing for clash with junta?
Mizzima News: Fire kills two in Rangoon

ON THE BORDER
Thai News Agency: Still no prosecution in tragic death of 54 Myanmar migrants
IRIN News: Child trafficking continues, but not fuelled by cyclone
Khonumthung News: Army extorts money from travelers

BUSINESS / TRADE
Reuters: India allows limited wheat exports to Myanmar, Nepal

DRUGS
Kachin News Group: Government staff in Loije into drugs

REGIONAL
Kyodo News (Japan): Japan sees increase of asylum-seekers

INTERNATIONAL
AFP: Nobel Laureates speak out for Suu Kyi
Reuters: U.S. to provide $5 mln more for Myanmar relief aid
Mizzima News: More companies ignore sanctions on Burma: BCUK

OPINION / OTHER
IPS: Junta turns blind eye to rising landmine casualties – Marwaan
Macan-Markar
United Press International: Unhappy Human Rights Day in Burma – Awzar Thi




____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

December 11, Democratic Voice of Burma
Lawyers denied permission to meet Daw Suu – Nan Kham Kaew

Ministers in Naypyidaw on 9 December refused to grant permission to two
lawyers for detained National League for Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi
to hold a meeting with their client.

The lawyers, Kyi Win and his assistant Hla Myo Myint, gave a letter to
Special Branch police on 3 December requesting permission to meet with
Aung San Suu Kyi on either 8 or 10 December to discuss her appeal against
her detention.

On 9 December, Special Branch agents summoned Kyi Win and told him the
request had been denied because the appeal was currently under
consideration.

"They said the cabinet is taking action on our appeal,” Kyi Win said.

“Therefore, they said we did not need to meet with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi
and were not allowed to do so."

Kyi Win said he did not believe the ongoing consideration of the appeal
should preclude him from meeting his client.

The special appeal was lodged with ministers in Naypyidaw on 19 October.

Senior NLD member Win Tin said he has been trying to obtain further
instructions from Aung San Suu Kyi while the party waits for the decision
from Naypyidaw.

____________________________________

December 11, Democratic Voice of Burma
Over 100 migrants from Arakan arrested – Naw Say Phaw

More than one hundred people were arrested at Rangoon’s Thilawa port on 8
December as they were being transported from Arakan state, according to
eyewitnesses.

The group members, who included a number of Muslims, had each paid 60,000
kyat for the journey to agents who had promised them employment when they
reached their destination, according to sources close to the group.

While the boat driver and passengers were arrested by soldiers, the boat
owner and the agents who had organised the trip were not detained.

The group was arrested for not having national identity cards, although
all those detained were carrying the white ID cards which were issued in
advance of the constitutional referendum in May.

They were temporarily detained on the Nawarat housing estate in
Aungchantha ward, Thanlyin, across the Rangoon river from Thilawa,
eyewitnesses said.

When DVB contacted the local police station an officer on duty confirmed
that 108 people in total had been arrested and said they had now been
transferred to Insein prison.

Thanlyin township immigration office is planning to prosecute them under
the Immigration Act because they were reportedly planning to go to
Thailand until a storm swept them into Rangoon harbour, the officer said.

A resident of Taunggok claimed that local authorities and agents in Arakan
state had been collaborating to make money from Muslims in Arakan state,
who face severe restrictions on their freedom of movement.

The Taunggok resident said victims of human trafficking were often
arrested and more than 100 people were currently being detained in Thandwe
jail.

"Agents and immigration people in Sittwe, Kyaukpyu, Buthidaung, Maungdaw
areas cooperate and 'carry' people,” the resident said.

“No authority organisation recognises these people as Burmese citizens,”
he said.

“They are being imprisoned without trial."

The Muslim minority in Arakan state, generally known as Rohingyas, are not
only denied permission to travel but also deprived of proper medical,
educational and economic assistance.

Human rights organisation Amnesty International reports that Rohingyas
also face extortion, forced displacement, land confiscation and forced
labour.

____________________________________

December 11, Associated Press
Myanmar releases opposition activist after 8 weeks

Myanmar's military authorities freed a prominent member of the opposition
National League for Democracy party Thursday after holding him for two
months for questioning.

Party spokesman Nyan Win said that Ohn Kyaing, a 64-year-old former
journalist, was well after being sent home from Yangon's notorious Insein
prison.

He said Ohn Kyaing was asked about the party's cyclone relief effort and
how it was funded, as well as other matters. He had been chairman of the
party's relief committee set up after Cyclone Nargis devastated the
country in May, killing more than 84,000 people and leaving another 54,000
missing.

"I am very happy that Ohn Kyaing was freed but it is very unfair that he
was held in prison for such a long time without committing any crime,"
Nyan Win said.

Ohn Kyaing joined the party led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu
Kyi after a long career in journalism and ran successfully for parliament
in a 1990 general election.

The National League for Democracy came out first in the polls, but the
ruling junta refused to honor the results and would not let Parliament
convene. Instead they stepped up arrests and harassment of the opposition.

Suu Kyi, the party leader, has spent more than 13 of the past 19 years
under house arrest.

Nyan Win said that since November more than 270 activists — more than half
of them members of his party — have been given prison sentences ranging
from two to 68 years.

Myanmar's military, which has held power since 1962, tolerates virtually
no dissent. It has ramped up its crackdown on dissent since Buddhist monks
led pro-democracy protests in September 2007.

According to international human rights groups the government holds more
than 2,100 political prisoners, up sharply from nearly 1,200 in June 2007,
before the demonstrations.

____________________________________

December 11, Mizzima News
Fire kills two in Rangoon – Nem Davies

A man and a woman were killed after a fire broke out in a room close to
the Mingalar plaza in Rangoon early today morning.

The fire started in the uppermost floor of the three-storey building in
Mingalar Taung Nyunt Township at 12:35 a.m. It took 30 minutes for the
fire-brigade to bring the blaze under control but the fire killed two
persons living in the room.

"Both died in hospital. The woman was suffocated in the thick of smoke but
she died only after being hospitalized. The man died this morning about
8:30 a.m.", said the township fire-brigade communication officer Myint
Shein to Mizzima over telephone.

However, he refused to provide detailed information about the victims.
According to an eye witness the man was 22 years old and the woman 24.
____________________________________

December 11, Irrawaddy
Is UWSA preparing for clash with junta? – Lawi Leng

About 1,000 United Wa State Army (UWSA) troops have been taking part in
military training exercises near the Thai-Burmese border since the
beginning of December, as Burma’s ruling junta steps up its efforts to
force the former rebel army to disarm.

The military exercises, which are taking place just a few kilometers from
Mae Ai District in northern Thailand’s Chiang Mai Province, come after
another failed attempt by the Burmese Army to persuade the Wa army to
disarm, according to Khuensai Jaiyen, editor of the Shan Herald Agency for
News, based in Chiang Mai.

Khuensai said that Maj-Gen Kyaw Phyoe, the Burmese Army’s regional
commander in the Golden Triangle area of Shan State, met with the
commander of the UWSA’s 468th Brigade, Col Sai Hsarm, in Mongpawk, south
of the UWSA headquarters of Panghsang, on December 5 to pressure him to
withdraw troops from the area and “exchange arms for peace.”

A source close to the UWSA said that Wa leaders rejected Kyaw Phyoe’s
proposal, and the meeting ended abruptly without the two sides reaching an
agreement.

“The UWSA military training may be in preparation for an attack on the
Burmese Army if they continue to pressure them to move from their current
location on the Thai-Burmese border,” said Khuensai.

Tensions between the Burmese Army and the UWSA have been mounting since
the Wa were told last year to withdraw their troops to Panghsang, which is
located near the Chinese border, from their current position near the
Thai-Burmese border. The UWSA continues to ignore the order.

The military exercises recently launched by the UWSA and mortar shelling
and gunfire in the area have put Thai border forces on the alert,
according a source based in the area.

Aung Kyaw Zwa, a Burmese analyst based o¬n the Sino-Burmese border, told
The Irrawaddy on Thursday that the UWSA’s current military exercises are
in preparation for a clash with government troops sometime next year.

“The UWSA know they have to talk to the Burmese military soon,” he said.
“These exercises are intended to reinforce their position before the
talks.”

The UWSA is an armed ethnic group that has had a ceasefire agreement with
the Burmese military since the early 1990’s. Leaders of the group,
including its commander Wei Hsueh Kang, also known as Wei Xuegang, are
wanted by the US government for
their key role in the region’s drug trade.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

December 11, Thai News Agency
Still no prosecution in tragic death of 54 Myanmar migrants

The tragic death of 54 illegal Myanmar migrants from suffocation in a
seafood container in Ranong province eight months ago, has drawn great
attention to the plight of Myanmar job seekers who are willing to risk
their lives in search of what they believe to be a better life. Yet eight
months on
.the prosecution of the smugglers has proven no easy task.

This cemetery became the unwanted destination of those ill-fated Myanmar
illegal migrants who died of suffocation while crammed in an unventilated
seafood container in April 2008 in the southern Thai province of Ranong.

Although 66 survivors in the same vehicle have become witnesses during the
investigation, their smugglers have yet to be brought to justice.

According to a report of the Department of Special Investigation or DSI,
migrant worker smuggling gangs in Ranong, just opposite Myanmar shoreline,
are a thriving business, with about 12 Thai smuggling syndicates working
closely with them. The criminal networks have become more powerful by
using violence against those who turn against them.

"As the trial went on, our witness was shot dead. The gangs used violence
to threaten the migrant workers," Pol Lt-Col Pongin Inthornkao, a DSI
investigator.

Because of a legal loophole, 8 people accused in the April 10 suffocation
tragedy were filed only with light charge-- providing shelter for illegal
migrants and causing death to other persons by recklessness. The 66
Myanmar survivors were charged with illegal entry.

"Only a charge of recklessness causing death to a person can’t lead to the
seizure of the assets of any wrongdoer under the money laundering bill,"
Thanu Eakchote, a lawyer of Myanmar survivors.

Although a new law to strictly prevent human trafficking was enforced in
mid 2008, law-enforcement agencies express concern it might not bring
wrongdoers to conviction as the new law can be enforced only if a forced
labour case occurs.

The tragic April 2008 death of the Myanmar illegal migrants was not the
first time it’s happened. Since 2007, at least 92 Myanmar migrants have
died, while an unknown number have been smuggled into the kingdom. But
despite an uncertain fate awaiting at their destination, it seems unlikely
to deter Myanmar migrants from fleeing poor conditions in their homeland
in search of a better life.

____________________________________

December 11, IRIN News (UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs)
Child trafficking continues, but not fuelled by cyclone

When Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar in May, leaving close to 140,000 people
dead or missing, aid workers feared an increase in child trafficking from
the region.

Burmese children have long been trafficked into Bangkok and other urban
areas of Thailand where they are forced to sell flowers, beg or work in
domestic service, according to World Vision. Others work in agriculture,
fishing, construction and the sex industry, the NGO said.

Today they make up the largest proportion of foreign child labour,
Thailand's immigration detention centres report.

However, despite the risks, no increases have been reported, although
specialists caution that accurate figures are not available. "We've had no
reports of an increase in trafficking numbers," Mark Thomas, chief of
communications for the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) Thailand, told IRIN.

"If there were such report[s] I would be cautious about using [them] since
there are no accurate figures on the numbers of people who are trafficked
on a regular basis prior to the cyclone," he said – a sentiment echoed by
aid workers in the Thai border town of Mae Sot, from where so many Burmese
enter the country.

"Trafficking happens here every day," said Aye Aye Mar, founder of Social
Action for Women, a local NGO providing shelter and training for Burmese
women and children.

"We saw one group of about 100 women from the cyclone region brought to
Mae Sot by smugglers, but we haven't seen any cases involving children,"
said Aye Aye Mar.

While most evidence of Nargis-related trafficking has been anecdotal, one
NGO working in Myanmar intervened in seven trafficking cases in June, some
involving children.

"Children are at increased risk of being trafficked when they're separated
from their parents or primary caregivers, as was the case with some
children during Cyclone Nargis," said one field officer, speaking on
condition of anonymity.

Those risks are exacerbated when families are impoverished and children
are forced to undertake more exploitative work to contribute to family
livelihood, the aid worker said.

Job seekers

Mae Sot lies on the principal land route into Myanmar through the border
town of Myawaddy. It is also a key point on migration and trafficking
routes between the two countries, with many Burmese coming to work in the
town's factories and farms.

It has Thailand's largest Burmese population, estimated at 80,000-plus,
nine refugee camps, and probably the largest concentration of
Myanmar-focused international and local NGOs in the country.

Aid workers say trafficking works in several ways. Some involves highly
visible activities where job brokers in Myanmar distribute posters, fliers
and T-shirts advertising overseas work with free flights and high salaries
– the average Burmese annual wage is about US$240.

A more usual story is people wanting work contact the brokers.

But with child trafficking, brokers approach poor families directly -
offering cash to take their child to a city such as Bangkok to earn money
by selling flowers or begging.

Children vulnerable

Many economic migrants fall into the trafficking trap upon arrival in Mae
Sot, according to one local NGO.

"Once migrant families arrive here [Mae Sot], their children become
increasingly vulnerable to trafficking," a local aid worker, who did not
want to be named, said.

"This happens for a couple of reasons. First, their parents work all day
and can't look after them, so they become more visible to the traffickers.
Second, the family needs money," she said.

"In poor families it is normal for children to work. So when a broker
offers them 1,500 baht [$42.80] per month to take the child to Bangkok to
sell flowers, they don't see it as human trafficking."

But many families see only the first one or two payments from the
traffickers, who quickly break off contact. Many never see their children
again.

"The children who are trafficked are very young," explained Aye Aye Mar.
"They often can't remember where they come from, and don't know how to
contact their family or village if they manage to run away from the
brokers."

Educating migrant families and vulnerable communities within Myanmar about
the risk of trafficking, and the tricks and promises employed by brokers,
is key to fighting the trade.

This needs to be backed up with capacity-building at an institutional
level, noted Ashley Clements, an advocacy officer with World Vision
Myanmar.

"Some of the most effective ways that World Vision has been working on
trafficking has been the capacity-building of government officials,
upgrading their skills to make them more aware of the associated issues
and how to address them," he said.

"But if we don't find solutions to help vulnerable people rebuild their
livelihoods and start earning a living, then they will remain much more
vulnerable to trafficking," he warned.

____________________________________

December 11, Khonumthung News
Army extorts money from travelers

Troops of the Burmese Army extorted Kyat 150,000 and three hens from six
villagers of Khawthlir, Rih sub-township, in Chin state on the Indo-Burma
border. They were going to Mizoram in northeast India to look for jobs ...
Troops of the Burmese Army extorted Kyat 150,000 and three hens from six
villagers of Khawthlir, Rih sub-township, in Chin state on the Indo-Burma
border. They were going to Mizoram in northeast India to look for jobs.

When the six villagers were going to Mizoram state on November 26, they
met soldiers from the Light Infantry Battalion No. (268). Two army
personnel on the forest road took Kyat 150,000 by force and three hens
from them.

As two soldiers took all the money the travelers had borrowed from their
friends in Rih town on the Indo-Burma border and were going to Aizawl
capital of Mizoram state.

The Indo-Burma border based troops of the Burmese Army always take money
by force from those who cross the border.

A Burmese Army corporal was killed by unknown people because he tried to
take money by force from travelers on the Indo-Burma border on September
23.

The Army chief in Chin State General Hung Ngai has stopped patrols in the
border area. But soldiers still wait along forest roads and take money by
force from those crossing the border.

A majority of Burmese Army soldiers are paid inadequate salaries and fined
it difficult to manage because of high essential commodity prices. If they
get a chance to make some money they extort it from villagers and traders.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

December 11, Reuters
India allows limited wheat exports to Myanmar, Nepal

India has given permission for limited wheat exports to neighbours Myanmar
and Nepal, the government said in a statement on Thursday.

It allowed the shipment of 950 tonnes to Myanmar, and 10,000 tonnes to Nepal.

Last month, Farm Minister Sharad Pawar said India would set aside 2
million tonnes of wheat to meet requests made through diplomatic channels,
partially easing the country's export ban.

____________________________________
DRUGS

December 11, Kachin News Group
Government staff in Loije into drugs

There has been an alarming rise in drug addiction among government staff,
despite the restriction on drugs in Loije city, near China-Burma border,
Bhamo District in Kachin State in northern Burma, a source said.

According to a Loije resident, though the ban has been on, almost all the
government civic officers and staff use drugs.

They are not buying drugs with money from drugs dealers but they have
links with them for regular supply and they use mostly, Yama also called
Methamphetamine.

Drugs are imported to Loije from Shan State with the help of corrupt
officials of the military junta's agencies including the police, special
narcotic police, military and military affairs security unit (Sa-Ya-Pha),
a resident added.

Meanwhile drug addiction among youth has also increased manifold in Loije.
Most youth use drugs, said a resident.

The new northern command commander Maj-Gen Soe Win has imposed
restrictions and is taking action regarding drug issues since he was
transferred there, a local said.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

December 11, Kyodo News (Japan)
Japan sees increase of asylum-seekers

The number of foreign nationals applying for refugee status in Japan is
likely to hit an all-time high of around 1,500 in 2008 mainly due to
political instability in countries such as Myanmar [Burma], sources
familiar with the matter said Thursday.

But the increase in applications has retarded the screening process,
leaving many claimants impoverished in Japan, the sources said.

Of the expected applicants, about 50 are likely to be recognized as
refugees. Another 400 people, a fourfold jump from 2007, are expected to
obtain special permits to stay in Japan on humanitarian grounds.

The expected number of refugee-status seekers this year is about double
that of 2007 when 816 applied. It is nearly 60 per cent higher than the
previous all-time high of 954 in 2006, according to the Justice Ministry.
The figure stayed around 100-400 between 1996 and 2005.

The surge in 2006 followed the revision the preceding year of the refugee
recognition law to enable third parties, such as legal experts and
academics, to take part in appeals hearings for people whose applications
have been dismissed by the Justice Ministry while giving such people a
temporary permit to stay.

Applications in 2007 and 2008 increased due mainly to the suppression of
the pro-democracy movement in Myanmar and intensified internal conflict in
Sri Lanka. People from Myanmar have accounted for the largest group of
refugee-status seekers since 2007.

The ministry plans to increase the number of staff in charge of refugee
affairs in a bid to establish a system that can complete the entire
screening process - from accepting applications to examining appeals -
within six months, the sources said.

In 2007, screening took an average of 20 months. Given increasing
applications, it is likely to be longer this year.

Many of the applicants have been forced to lead impoverished lives in
Japan while waiting for the ministry's decisions, because they are banned
from working and are not eligible for public assistance, the sources said.

Applicants may receive aid from the Foreign Ministry via a welfare
foundation set up to help refugees from other Asian countries. But its
budget has been depleted.

"As a significantly higher number of special stay permits were issued this
year, refugee-status applications are likely to rise further in coming
years. A fundamental solution is needed," said Eri Ishikawa of the Japan
Association for Refugees.

In 1981, Japan joined the UN Convention Relating to the Status of
Refugees, which defines those with a well-founded fear of being persecuted
for reasons of race, religion, nationality or political opinions as
refugees and defines the responsibility of the nations that grant asylum.

But Japan has been particularly reluctant among industrialized countries
to accommodate refugees under the convention. The country has given
refugee status to a total of 451 people through 2007, an extremely small
number compared with European countries and the United States.

Japan, however, has accepted more than 10,000 Indo-Chinese refugees, or
people fleeing from political suppression in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia
since 1978, outside the framework of the UN convention.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

December 11, Agence France Presse
Nobel Laureates speak out for Suu Kyi

Nobel peace laureates opened a summit in Paris on Thursday to draw world
attention to the plight of Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi, but former Soviet
leader Mikhail Gorbachev was forced to miss the gathering.

Gorbachev, whose foundation is co-hosting the three-day gathering with the
city of Paris, was suffering from ill health and unable to travel.

Meeting a day after former Finnish president Martii Ahtisaari received
this year's prestigious prize, the dozen Nobel laureates were also to
present an award to Irish rocker-turned-activist Bono for his crusade
against poverty.

Gorbachev, 77, was to join former leaders F.W. de Klerk of South Africa,
Lech Walesa of Poland and Northern Ireland politician John Hume for the
annual gathering, held in Paris.

"I regret to inform you that doctors have forbidden me to travel,"
Gorbachev said in a message read to delegates. "I hope that everything
will be all right."

Italian opposition leader Walter Veltroni described his health problem as
"minor".

Gorbachev won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990, a year after the Berlin Wall
fell, marking a turning point in East-West relations that paved the way
for the reunification of Germany.

The Paris summit focuses on the theme "human rights and a world without
violence" amid celebrations marking 60 years since the UN declaration of
human rights was adopted in Paris.

Nobel laureates are launching an international appeal to free Burmese
pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who won the prize in 1991, and has
been detained for most of the past two decades.

Burma's military junta has kept her mostly isolated from the outside
world, only receiving visits from her doctor and lawyer.

Last week, more than 100 former leaders wrote to UN chief Ban Ki-moon
urging him to travel to Burma to secure the release of Aung San Suu Kyi
and other political prisoners.

But the UN secretary general has ruled out a visit and expressed
frustration at the military regime's failure to take steps toward dialogue
with the opposition.

Ban visited Burma in May after its military rulers came under
international fire for not allowing foreign aid in after a cyclone left
138,000 people dead or missing.

On Friday, the Nobel laureates are to pay tribute to Bono for his campaign
to win debt relief for African countries and eradicating poverty.

Last year's recipients of the Peace Summit Award were US actors George
Clooney and Don Cheadle, who have spoken out against the violence in
Sudan's war-torn Darfur region.

____________________________________

December 11, Reuters
U.S. to provide $5 mln more for Myanmar relief aid – Jeremy Pelofsky

WASHINGTON, Dec 10 (Reuters) - Some U.S. aid is getting to the people of
Myanmar and Washington plans to provide $5 million more in disaster relief
in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis that devastated the country in May,
U.S. first lady Laura Bush said on Wednesday.

The United States sent about $75 million in relief and the reclusive
military junta in Myanmar allowed at least 100 U.S. flights after the
storm slammed the Irrawaddy delta, killing more than 130,000 and leaving
more than 2 million destitute.

Bush, speaking to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York to mark the
60th anniversary of the International Declaration of Human Rights, said
the U.S. Agency for International Development would send $5 million more
in aid.

"This assistance will support the efforts of nongovernmental organizations
like the World Food Program and Save the Children to ensure access to
clean water, adequate shelter, basic health services, and other essential
needs in the most affected areas," she said.

She noted that a reporter from the BBC went to the delta recently and made
an interesting discovery.

"We saw photographs of the shacks that the people who lived in the delta
are building -- rebuilding to rebuild their homes, and they were built out
of the rice sacks that were stacked with USAID and American flags," she
said.

"So we do know that some of this relief we're sending into the cyclone
area is getting to the people," Bush said.

Just a few weeks before she and her husband, President George W. Bush,
leave the White House, Bush pledged she would keep pushing for democratic
reforms in Myanmar, previously known as Burma, after leaving Washington.

"I'm going to pay, really, a lot of attention to these two issues, the
international issues that I've worked on the most, both Afghanistan and
Burma," she said.

Myanmar's military junta has refused to accept losing a 1990 election and
has cracked down numerous times on pro-democracy demonstrators, killing
thousands.

____________________________________

December 11, Mizzima News
More companies ignore sanctions on Burma: BCUK – Solomon

Despite a call for sanctions by the international community on Burma,
companies are instead expanding their engagement in business relationships
with the militarily-ruled country and as such are complicit in the torture
of Burmese citizens, says a prominent activist group.

The London-based Burma Campaign UK (BCUK) has added at least 30 additional
international companies to their dirty list of those who financially
support the Burmese military junta directly or indirectly by investing in
the country.

BCUK director Mark Farmaner told Mizzima that the lack of effective action
on and support for sanctions regarding Burma, including countries in
Europe and Asia in addition to the United Nations, encourages an
increasing number of companies to invest in Burma.

"Because governments have simply not imposed sanctions, their governments
have not taken action," said Mark Farmaner. "Though there have been strong
sanctions for many years, they have failed," he added.

"The UN, as well as EU and Asian governments have not taken action,
leaving the Burmese democracy movement in torture," added Farmaner.

BCUK lists170 companies in total in their new dirty list as investing in
Burma and thus supporting the military junta's financial lifeline.

"This list proves that the current sanctions are not working. More
companies than ever are investing in Burma in the oil, gas and dam
sectors," said Johnny Chatterton, Campaigns Officer for BCUK, in the
report.

Prominent companies on the list include Toyota, Qantas, TOTAL Oil, Orient
Express, Kuoni, TUI, Schlumberger, BBC Worldwide, Lonely Planet, Daewoo,
China National Offshore Oil Corp and Hutchison Whampoa, according to the
report.

"Almost 200 companies are listed as working in Burma, bringing in billions
of dollars to the regime and showing that there are no real economic
sanctions," said Farmaner.

"The sanctions are simply not there. If there were sanctions by the UN and
national governments, these companies would not be able to operate in
Burma," said Farmaner.

The BCUK director said the UN itself is silent in the matter of taking
action against the junta, even though it has accused the military junta of
human rights abuses as under the Geneva agreement.

"The UN has got not one single sanction against the regime, not even an
arms embargo," expounded Farmaner.

There are many more companies investing in Burma apart from those on the
list, including well-known names, as they are not considered to be
significantly investing in the country.

"We have seen that SPDC become richer and richer and human rights abuses
getting worse and worse," added Farmaner.

More than 100 companies, including Cotton Traders, XL, Trailblazer Guides,
Jet Gold Corp, CHC, Aquatic, PwC, Rolls Royce, DHL, Swiss Re and Willis
have pulled out of Burma after facing protests from BCUK and being placed
on their dirty list, which premiered six years ago.

However, as some companies have withdrawn from the country, the military
junta has tried to replace them with regional companies, resulting in a
lot of Asian companies now exploiting sectors of the Burmese economy such
as natural resources.

"Newly targeted sanctions against the regime must now be implemented if
the international community is serious about cutting the regime's
financial lifeline," said Johnny Chatterton.

"To those that claim investment aids the people of Burma, the evidence
shows the opposite is true. As investment has increased, the human rights
situation has deteriorated," he continued

The new dirty list companies mainly invest in the gas, oil,
hydroelectricity and tourism sectors, according to the report.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

December 11, Inter Press Service
Junta turns blind eye to rising landmine casualties – Marwaan Macan-Markar

Thanks to the callousness of its military rulers, Burma has aacquired
another unenviable statistic. It has replaced Cambodia as the country with
the highest annual number of landmine victims in the region.

Yet the figure of 438 new mine casualties in 2007 in the South-east Asian
country is a conservative estimate, says a co-author of the ‘Landmine
Monitors Report (LMR) - 2008’.

These documented landmine explosions resulted in 47 deaths, 338 people
injured and ‘’53 unknown,’’ revealed the LMR, which is an annual
assessment brought out for the past decade to build up global pressure to
ban landmines. The report adds weight to the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty, signed
or ratified by 156 countries.

The toll, however, was limited to ‘’civilian casualties,’’ based on what
the report’s researchers gathered from media accounts and information from
humanitarian and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the country.

‘’The Burmese government doesn’t make public the list of combat
casualties... We have almost nothing on soldiers injured from landmine
explosions,’’ revealed co-author Yeshua Moser-Puangsuwan during this
week’s launch of the annual report in the Thai capital.

A similar cloak of secrecy confronted researchers trying to get casualty
figures from ethnic rebel groups in Burma, or Myanmar, who also use the
antipersonnel mine as a weapon in their separatist war.

‘’Myanmar has moved up a notch. For the first time it has overtaken the
casualties in Cambodia,’’ added Moser-Puangsuwan. ‘’It comes third after
Afghanistan and Columbia globally.’’

According to LMR figures on Burma, there were 132 new casualties reported
in 2004, 231 in 2005, 243 in 2006 and 438 in 2007. Cambodia, by contrast,
had 352 new mine victims in 2007, a decrease of 22 percent from 2006, when
the figure was 450, and a dramatic drop from 2005, when there were 875 new
casualties.

Mines in Cambodia are a deadly legacy of the nearly two-decade-long war
and internal conflict that began in the 1970s. The unexploded ordnance in
Cambodia were the work of many armies, including the United Sates, during
its war in Indo-China, and the Vietnamese troops, when it invaded Cambodia
to drive out the ruthless Khmer Rouge regime.

In Burma, on the other hand, mines are still actively used by both the
‘Tatmadaw’, as the military is called, and the many ethnic rebel armies,
ranging from the Karen National Liberation Army , the Karenni Army and the
Democratic Karen Buddhist Army to the Shan Sate Army-South and the United
Wa State Army.

‘’Burma is the one country that has consistently used landmines on a
widespread bases; it is the only one doing so globally,’’ says
Moser-Puangsuwan. ‘’The military industry of Myanmar producers at least
three types of mines. One is a plastic mine, which is very difficult to
detect, and can remove an arm or a leg.’’

While 10 of the country’s 14 states and divisions are contaminated with
mines, the most heavily mined areas are close to its borders, such as the
eastern one with Thailand, which are regions that are home to the ethnic
minorities.

'’The junta uses landmines to secure and defend its military bases close
to the border and as a weapon to attack the ethnic rebel groups,’’ says
Win Min, a Burmese national security expert teaching in a northern Thai
university.

‘’The mines are a very important as weapons for the Burmese army,’’ he
added during a telephone interview. ‘’But the problem is that most of the
mines hit civilians, not the rebels. And the junta does not have a proper
mapping system, so when the troops move on, they leave the mines behind.’’

Such mine warfare has taken a toll on the Burmese troops, too, Win Min
confirmed. ‘’There are a lot of Burmese soldiers who are victims. You see
many amputees in the military hospitals.’’

Some of the civilian casualties are being aided by the International
Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) through its Hpa-an orthopaedic centre,
set up in 2003 in the Karen State, in south-east Burma. ‘’We treat 600
people a year. Most of those being helped with our prosthetic services are
adults,’’ Djorde Drndarski, deputy head of the ICRC delegation, said in a
telephone interview from Rangoon.

This service of artificial limbs by the global humanitarian agency comes
after the victims have been treated for their blast injuries at local
hospitals, added Drndarski. ‘’The persons have to be first cared for at
the hospitals. We take over after that. There is also an outreach
programme we run with our partner, the Myanmar Red Cross Society.’’

It is in this region, in fact, that Human Rights Watch revealed that mines
are being used by the junta to ‘’kill, maim and starve civilians’’ from
the ethnic minorities. Researchers for the New York-based global rights
lobby painted a grim picture, where the Tatmadaw have been laying
landmines ‘’in front of houses, around rice fields, and along trails
leading to fields in order to deter civilians from harvesting their
crops’’.

And the likelihood of the junta changing course and joining the other
countries in ratifying the 1997 international treaty appears remote. In
addition to ignoring the treaty, the regime has also refused to open its
doors for international humanitarian assistance to help landmine victims
-- unlike Cambodia which drew 30.8 million US dollars for mine action
funding in 2007.

Burma also stands apart from two other neighbours, Laos and Vietnam, that
has still to endorse the treaty but have responded to the global anti-mine
movement positively. The junta has stayed away from international meetings
dealing with the global landmine ban and has also abstained from voting at
the U.N. General Assembly.

‘’The Myanmar government does not want to admit that there is a problem,’’
says Alfredo Lubang, regional representative, of Nonviolence
International, a global NGO. ‘’There is no systematic mine-risk education
programme.’’

Consequently, the international anti-landmine movement ‘’has established a
very special campaign for Burma,’’ he told IPS. ‘’It is the Halt Mine Use
in Burma Campaign; no other country has been targeted like this.’’

____________________________________

December 11, United Press International
Unhappy Human Rights Day in Burma – Awzar Thi

While governments and groups around the world made effusive statements and
gave awards to mark the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights on Dec. 10, the Asian Human Rights Commission struck a more
somber note.
“The celebration,” the regional body said, “is a grim reminder that even
after 60 years of the adoption of this great declaration, the gap between
what is declared and what is actually achieved ... is enormous. Both in
the field of civil and political rights as well as economic, social and
cultural rights, people in Asia ... have so little to celebrate.”

The downbeat mood was certainly shared in Burma. There, a handful of
people belonging to local group Human Rights Defenders and Promoters
gathered in Rangoon to mark the date.

Their International Human Rights Day event was muted by comparison to most
around the world, and even compared to the one that they had held the year
before. But that they got together at all demonstrated their commitment to
what the day represents.

Government-backed thugs and officials harassed and questioned the
participants as they arrived for the program on Tuesday. The following
morning, police and other authorities visited and threatened the
organizers.

“They seemed quite angry,” one told Radio Free Asia. “‘Every year you lot
upset the public like this,’ they said.”

For upsetting the public with talk about human rights, dozens of the
group’s members are already languishing in jail. They include its leader,
who has been accused of plotting bomb attacks after he spoke out on the
need for more emergency relief in the wake of Cyclone Nargis, which hit
the country in May. Others have been imprisoned on offences ranging from
sedition to illegal tutoring. Many were arbitrarily detained and charged
after last year’s protests.

Police have lodged the name of an associate living abroad with Interpol,
which has obligingly posted a wanted notice for him on its Web site. His
alleged offences include people smuggling and terrorism.

The gap between what has been declared and what has been achieved could
hardly be wider than in Burma today, a fact that Human Rights Defenders
and Promoters also plainly acknowledge.

“In stark contrast to the aims and pledges contained in the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, our country, Burma,” its statement read, “is
utterly violating human rights in the gravest manner.”

One person who had come from cyclone-ravaged areas to attend the gathering
put it more bluntly: “Across the whole country, you’ll see human rights
abuses whenever you step outside your house.”

After a tumultuous year in which global interest in Burma was not matched
with efforts to support domestic efforts for real change, the group’s
statement also contained a sense of despair at the ineffectual work of
international agencies.

“Contrary to their aims and objectives, the U.N. and the Human Rights
Council as well have failed to successfully prevent human rights abuses,”
it said pointedly.

Nothing in this year’s speeches of either the U.N. secretary-general or
the high commissioner for human rights will give the rights defenders in
Burma, or elsewhere in Asia, cause for optimism.

In her address, High Commissioner Navanethem Pillay blandly iterated,
“Tens of millions of people around the world are still unaware that they
have rights that they can demand.” She said that she warmly welcomed the
designation of 2009 as the International Year of Human Rights Learning, to
make up for this presumed deficit in knowledge.

For millions in Burma and Asia, the declared year will consist of nothing
more than lost time and wasted opportunities. As Human Rights Defenders
and Promoters make clear, their problem is not a lack of knowledge. They
understand the issues better than the high commissioner. Their problem is
a lack of means to implement and enforce their rights.

Nobody needs to be told about rights that they can’t obtain. What people
need are practical ways to protect those rights, and to obtain redress
where they are wronged. Learning about human rights is only useful if
accompanied with well-informed steps toward those ends.

The United Nations should instead do some learning itself. It should spend
time learning about how rights are systemically denied in countries across
Asia, including Burma, and about what can be done to intervene actively to
make it otherwise. This is a much harder task than the one it has set
itself for 2009, but it’s the only one really worth doing.

“Unfortunately, in the countries of the region the ordinary folk react to
human rights discourse without much enthusiasm,” the Asian Human Rights
Commission said in its closing remarks on Wednesday, “due to their
realization that the systems of oppression that exist, which are defective
administration of justice systems, will not allow them to enjoy these
rights.”

That’s the nub of Burma’s problems. The Human Rights Defenders and
Promoters know it. Anyone who steps outside their door there knows it. The
U.N. technocrats probably know it too, even if they won’t admit it. Enough
of learning; without implementing, there will only be many more unhappy
Human Rights Days to observe in Rangoon.

--

(Awzar Thi is the pen name of a member of the Asian Human Rights
Commission with over 15 years of experience as an advocate of human rights
and the rule of law in Thailand and Burma. His Rule of Lords blog can be
read at http://ratchasima.net)