BurmaNet News, December 16, 2008

[Editor]

December 16, 2008, Issue #3618

INSIDE BURMA
KNG: Three Kachin student leaders sent to forced labor camp
DVB: Bago farmers forced to grow sunflowers
New Light of Myanmar: Chief justice meets judges of Yangon division

ON THE BORDER
KNG: Murder and torture in casinos on Sino-Burma border on the rise

BUSINESS/ TRADE
UAE Daily: Prince Alwaleed receives Myanmar ambassador to Saudi Arabia

INTERNATIONAL
Irrawaddy: Crackdown on freedom of speech condemned
Irrawaddy: More calls for Ban to visit Burma

OPINION / OTHER
Daily Mail (UK): Burma - one of the most beautiful and ugliest countries -
Peter Hitchens
IRASEC: Isolationism or self-preservation - Renaud Egreteau and Larry Jagan
NDI Democracy Luncheon: Remarks of Thin Thin Aung, Women’s League of Burma

STATEMENT
Burma Campaign UK: Biggest ever Burma 'Dirty List' published


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INSIDE BURMA

December 16, Kachin News Group
Three Kachin student leaders sent to forced labor camp

The Burmese military junta sentenced three ethnic Kachin student leaders
to one year in a forced labor camp which doubles as a prison on charges of
being involved in a 'racial movement' in Mon Ywa University in Sagaing
Division in northern Burma in September, said Kachin student sources.

Tu Nan, final year Economics student and Secretary of the School for
Kachin Culture and Literature was also included among those sentenced.
They were sent to the forced labor camp in Khanti in the division in
September, said a Kachin student leader in Myitkyina University in Kachin
state.

The Kachin student leaders have been sentenced for their involvement in
murdering a Burmese Economics student in the school in September. However
they were charged for 'racial movement' instead of being slapped with a
'murder charge', said Kachin students in Mon Ywa University.

In early September, a Burmese student, the son of retired Burmese Army
Major was beaten to death in the school hostel by over 20 male Kachin
students including the three Kachin student leaders because they felt
racially discriminated against by Burmese students being in the school's
majority, according to a local source close to student leaders.

The three student leaders were arrested and promptly sentenced to one year
in prison in Khanti forced labor camp soon after the murder was reported
to a Kachin headed the ruling junta's Military Affairs Security Unit (Sa
Ya Pha) or the military intelligence squad in Mandalay Division and
commander Maj-Gen Soe Win of Northern Military Command headquarters (Ma Pa
Kha) based in Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin state, added Kachin
students in the school.

According to sources close to Kachin students in Mon Ywa University, the
school has over 300 Kachin Economics students but the discrimination is
unlimited against Kachin students who are looked down upon by Burmese
students. Kachin schoolgirls are also treated as casual sex partners by
Burmese males.

Mung Ywa school sources said the junta tried to put the lid on this
incident apprehensive that it would snowball into a students'
demonstration against the junta.

____________________________________

December 16, Democratic Voice of Burma
Bago farmers forced to grow sunflowers - Naw Say Phaw

Authorities in Bago division's Nyaunglebin district have been forcing
farmers to grow sunflowers and threatening to confiscate lands of those
who refuse to comply, according to locals.

Farmers were also forced to buy 2 pyi of sunflower seedlings per acre of
land and those who refused were notified that their farms would be
confiscated, a Nyaunglebin resident said.

"Six farmers from Taloke-kone village in Kyavandaing tract were notified
by village chair U Htay that their lands would be confiscated because they
did not buy sunflower seedlings,” the resident said.

“He told them to come and negotiate."

The farmers were reluctant to grow the new crop because it would interfere
with their other plants, the resident said.

"The bean sprouts are about five to six inches high now and the farmers
said if they planted sunflowers now they would have problems,” he said.

“But the officials told them they had to plant them as it is a 'project'
crop."

The authorities have been forcing farmers to grow sunflowers for three
years now, locals said, even though the crops have failed each year.

Some farmers believe that the project is related to the authorities’
superstitious belief that the plants can ward off evil.

____________________________________

December 14, New Light of Myanmar
Chief justice meets judges of Yangon division

Chief Justice U Aung Toe met with division, districts and townships judges
of Yangon Division at Supreme Court (Yangon) yesterday.

Present on the occasion were Deputy Chief Justice U Thein Soe of Supreme
Court (Yangon), Supreme Court judges, and officials.

Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Justice said that judges need to
understand regulations and ethics they are to abide by, so that people may
put trust in and rely on judicial pillar and they are to try to become
good and able persons and judges at different level are to make the
decision in accord with law and regulations without corruption.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

December 16, Kachin News Group
Murder, suicide and torture in casinos on Sino-Burma border on the rise

Murder, suicide and torture among gamblers has been rising steadily with
the opening of Chinese-owned casinos along the Sino-Burma border meant to
earn money in the shortest possible time by Burma's ethnic insurgents'
ceasefire groups, said border sources.

The gamblers risk dying in two major ways--- when they win or lose in the
casinos in the border controlled areas of Kachin Independence Organization
(KIO) and New Democratic Army – Kachin (NDA-K) in northern Burma, said
people in the casinos.

Maijayang, the KIO controlled area on China-Burma border where
Chinese-owned casino is situated.

Maijayang, the KIO controlled area on China-Burma border where
Chinese-owned casino is situated. On December 14, a Chinese gambler who
lost while gambling with borrowed money from casino owners in the casino
in Maijayang (Mai Ja Yang) of the KIO, tried to commit suicide with a
knife while he was kept at the special hotel meant for detaining such
people. He was physically tortured by special watchmen hired by casino
owners, said a local eyewitness.

A resident of Maijayang said, the casino in Maijayang is owned by a
Chinese and they also hire both Chinese and local Kachins in the name of
"businessmen watching job" by paying 800 Yuan per month. But the job
involves torture of gamblers who lose borrowed money from the casino
owners until they pay back the debt.

The losing gamblers are detained in hotel rooms and are provided mobile
phones. They are tortured, assaulted and sometimes murdered as a last
resort. Starvation is also resorted to and women gamblers are confined in
the rooms naked when they do not pay back the debt to casino owners within
the specified period, said sources close to gamblers.

Maijayang casino is the biggest in the KIO controlled area and is open 24
hours and more than 20,000 gamblers, mainly Chinese from different
countries, gamble every day, said residents of Maijayang.

The 80 acre Maijayang casino was extended to another 80 acres three months
ago, added local people.

There are also incidents like people going missing, being murdered and
cases of suicide among Chinese gamblers in another Chinese-owned casino in
Laiza, the border trade centre and headquarters of KIO, said residents of
Laiza.

The different types of torture on losing gamblers are carried out in all
casinos owned by Chinese businessmen in KIO and NDA-K areas. However, the
KIO and NDA-K authorities are yet to take up the matter with any
seriousness, said KIO and NDA-K sources.

Recently, the biggest casino in Chang Ying Hku in the controlled area of
NDA-K near Pangwah Pass on the Burma-China border was closed down because
about 80 Chinese gamblers were either dead or missing. The pressure to
close came from the Chinese government, said NDA-K sources.

In 2006, another Chinese-owned casino in the KIO's Nbapa near Maijayang
was also closed down following pressure from the Chinese government. Here
many Chinese gamblers including sons of Chinese government officials were
murdered, added KIO officials in Nbapa.

The two Kachin ceasefire groups, the KIO and NDA-K, grant Chinese
businessmen permission to open casinos in their controlled areas because
they want to earn small tax from hiring out casino land and fees as border
entry from Chinese gamblers, sources in the two groups said.

____________________________________
BUSINESS/ TRADE

December 16, United Arab Emirates Daily
Prince Alwaleed receives Myanmar ambassador to Saudi Arabia to discuss
philanthropic and economic issues

Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz Alsaud, Chairman of Kingdom
Holding Company (KHC) received at his office in Riyadh His Excellency Khin
Zaw Win, Ambassador of Myanmar to Saudi Arabia. The meeting was attended
by Ms. Nahla Alanbar, Personal Assistant to HRH the Chairman.

The meeting began as the Ambassador thanked Prince Alwaleed for giving
them the opportunity to meet with him as it was his first meeting with HRH
since the opening of the Myanmar embassy in Riyadh. The two discussed
current economic and social issues, and Mr. Win presented Prince Alwaleed
with investment opportunities in Myanmar. The Prince said that he welcomed
the ideas for investment in the country and would delegate a KHC team to
study them.

Furthermore, during the meeting, the Ambassador discussed philanthropic
issues and thanked the government of Saudi Arabia for its contribution to
his country. In response, HRH asked the Ambassador to relay his cordial
regards to the President and expressed his readiness to extend his
humanitarian assistance to Myanmar through the Alwaleed bin Talal
Foundation.

In conclusion to the meeting the Ambassador extended an invitation to His
Highness to visit Myanmar. In response, HRH thanked the ambassador and
promised to visit Myanmar in the near future.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

December 16, Irrawaddy
Crackdown on freedom of speech condemned - Min Lwin

The World Association of Newspapers condemned the crackdown on freedom of
expression in Burma, in a press statement released on Monday.

The free press organization, based in France, called on the Burmese
military ruling council to end its repressive policies and stop jailing
journalists and free speech advocates.

The organization also called on Burma’s partner nations in the Association
of Southeast Asian Nations to abandon their policy of non-interference and
bring pressure on Burma’s rulers to adopt international norms of free
expression.

The group cited the recent increase in unfair trials of journalists and
free speech activists, followed by lengthy prison sentences meant to deter
freedom of expression.

A Rangoon-based magazine editor said that the military authorities are
seeking to intimidate local journalists prior to the 2010 general
elections.

“It is the clear message to the journalists,” he told The Irrawaddy on
Tuesday. “If someone writes critically of the upcoming election, they will
be punished with long prison terms.”

In November, the military government has sentenced at least 14
journalists, writers and others exercising free speech, including a
prominent comedian and actor, Zarganar, who received 59 years; blogger Nay
Phone Latt, who received 20 years and 6 months; and Ein Khaing Oo, a
female journalist, who received two years.

According to the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political
Prisoners-Burma, 44 people who are either journalists or citizens involved
in freedom of expression are now jailed in prisons across the country.

The report said that military authorities have targeted exiled online
media Web sites, such as Mizzima and The Irrawaddy, which are essential
sources for journalists and others interested in Burma, through Internet
virus and other electronic attacks.

The Web site of The Irrawaddy was attacked in September by a
“distributed-denial-of-service,” or DDoS attack, which created a traffic
jam at the entry port to its Web site, knocking out normal service for
several days.

____________________________________

December 16, Irrawaddy
More calls for Ban to visit Burma - Saw Yan Naing

Political observers and leaders of opposition and ethnic groups in Burma
said they would like to see UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon return to the
country to push for political reform, even as they expressed doubts about
his chances of persuading the ruling junta to change its ways.

Nyan Win, a spokesperson for the opposition National League for Democracy
(NLD), said on Tuesday that Ban’s last visit to Burma in May signaled that
the UN chief was not ready to tackle the country’s political problems.

“There was no discussion about politics with the Burmese government during
his previous trip,” said Nyan Win. “That was not a good sign.”

Ban’s visit came several weeks after Cyclone Nargis hit the populous
Irrawaddy delta on May 2-3, leaving more than 140,000 people dead or
missing. During the visit, he met with junta officials, including Snr-Gen
Than Shwe, in an effort to get them to allow international aid workers
into the country.

Cin Sian Thang, chairman of the Zomi National Congress in Rangoon, also
said that it would not be easy for Ban to achieve much if he returned to
Burma.

“We hope it will be fruitful if he comes, but it all depends on what the
Burmese regime does,” he said.

Speaking with The Irrawaddy on Tuesday, Thakin Chan Htun, a veteran
politician in Rangoon, said that it was very important for Ban to meet
with Than Shwe, head of the Burmese junta.

He added, however, that the UN general-secretary probably didn’t want to
return to Burma because he didn’t think he would have a chance to talk
about politics with Than Shwe.

Win Min, a Burmese political analyst in exile, agreed.

“It is likely that he doesn’t want to visit Burma as there has been no
political improvement until now. If his trip doesn’t have any effect, he
will be criticized like [UN Special Envoy Ibrahim] Gambari,” said Win Min.

The UN general-secretary has repeatedly called for the release of
political prisoners in Burma, and earlier announced that he would visit
the country again in December. He later changed his mind, however, saying
that didn’t think the visit would serve any purpose under the current
circumstances.

“We understand that he doesn’t want to come because he hasn’t received a
green light from the Burmese government, but we want him to come anyway,”
said Cin Sian Thang.

Last week, more than 100 former world leaders urged Ban to visit Burma by
the end of December to persuade the Burmese regime to release all
political prisoners, including detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu
Kyi.

The move came after the UN secretary-general said at a press conference in
October that he would visit Burma only when he sees the possibility of
achieving progress toward the goals the UN has set and is certain his
visit would yield tangible results.

A former Italian foreign minister, Piero Fassino, who is the European
Union’s special envoy to Burma, said that a visit by the UN
general-secretary to Burma would activate talks with opposition groups.

“We believe that a personal initiative by Ban Ki-moon could prove positive
in establishing a serious dialogue between the military, democratic
opposition and ethnic minorities, which has not yet taken place,” Fassino
was quoted as saying in a report by Deutsche Press-Agentur.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

December 16, Daily Mail (UK)
Inside Burma - one of the world's most beautiful and ugliest countries and
the last ghost of the British Empire - Peter Hitchens

In Burma the people are afraid of their rulers - and the rulers are so
afraid of the people that they hide from them in a crazy capital city
hundreds of miles from anywhere. The only open opposition comes from a
lonely woman in a besieged villa and a troupe of comedians in a tiny
back-street theatre, who are forbidden to tell jokes in their native
language.

In the strange league of pariah states, where Cuba jostles with North
Korea and Belarus for the title of most fear-ridden nation on Earth, Burma
is certainly the oddest of all.

You step off the edge of the known world when you go there. The last part
of the journey, from Bangkok to Rangoon, takes less than two hours. But it
hauls you roughly out of the smooth, the globalized and the familiar into
a dark, disturbing place.

Bangkok's gargantuan airport is a bloated celebration of everything we
have come to accept as normal. It is a colossal shopping mall with some
serviceable runways attached, so immense that the traveler can easily get
lost in its hallways, throbbing with the urgent pulse of consumer culture,
adorned with every brand name, sparkling and garish at every hour of day
or night.

Rangoon, by contrast, is dingy at all hours. It is decrepit and secretive,
and perhaps the last city on Earth where the ghost of the British Empire
still walks. The great globalist tidal wave of concrete, money and credit,
advertising and electronics, which has made the whole world bland,
faltered and flopped before it got to Burma.

In Rangoon your mobile phone sits dead in your pocket and your credit card
is useless. The internet is busily censored. There are a dozen monasteries
and not a single Starbucks or McDonald's. The traffic is reasonable rather
than frantic, and often actually sparse. The billboards mostly advertise
local products you have never heard of.

It is profoundly poor. Child labor is common and blatant, with small boys
toiling on road gangs. There are dreadful, fetid slums within a mile of
the heart of Rangoon.

The airport road passes close to the well-named Insein prison, a giant
circular fortress of repression which was once the largest jail in our
Empire. It is now the hopeless home of many protesters and dissenters who
wrongly thought last year that they had a chance of overthrowing the
Burmese military regime. Some have just begun truly insane sentences of as
long as 65 years.

At the great seaport's heart, tremendous decayed structures of dark brick
or heavy stone, like vast Yorkshire town halls or broken-off chunks of
Whitehall, rear above the cratered streets and ruined pavements. Several
of these relics even have trees growing out of their upper storey’s, much
as you used to see in Communist East Berlin. In an odd way, Rangoon is a
sort of tropical East Berlin, its derelict decay made worse by the sweaty
heat.

Slovenly police officers loaf about their sinister headquarters, offering
incorrect directions to travelers. Clerks can be seen filling in forms
with typewriters, a technology vanished everywhere else but still employed
by this unhurried police state.

Gaggles of suspicious soldiers skulk - especially on or near bridges,
though they are plainly under orders to stay in the background for now.

The spires of Gothic cathedrals, in cold white stone and livid pink brick,
stand out from a skyline that is still only slightly disfigured by
concrete tower blocks.

Lovely ornate apartment houses, some dating from before the First World
War, crumble gently above narrow, pungent streets laid out long ago by
colonial planners who believed British rule would last for ever. You are
walking through the ruins of a collapsed civilization.

When twilight comes, the sensation of being in a lost world grows
stronger. Electricity dribbles unreliably and weakly to homes and
businesses even here in the richest and most bustling part of the country.
Tiny shop fronts and tea shops are lit with candles.

Even where there is power, it is feeble. The windows of the big buildings
have a North Korean look, giving off the same grayish, sad light that you
see after dark in Pyongyang.

The unbelievable, floodlit golden tower that is the Shwedagon Pagoda,
supreme shrine of Burmese Buddhism and the country's single most precious
possession, broods over the twilit former capital, reminding you time and
again that this is still a profoundly pious country, and one that has -
for better and for worse - missed the economic revolution that has
transformed the rest of the Far East.

In any other major Asian city, 80-storey hotels and office blocks would
long ago have eclipsed it, reducing it to a tourist toy, but here it
springs into view from a thousand places, often glimpsed at the far end of
squalid lanes, half-obscured by webs of knotted power cables and phone
lines.

If you walk slowly enough down such lanes, you will find yourself being
gently approached by ordinary Burmese, anxious for contact with the
outside world. Some crave tourist business - one money-changer even asked
me how many people had come in on my flight, so anxious was he for trade.
Others begin boldly but clam up when questioned about conditions.

When I asked one man, with excellent English, why he didn't work abroad,
he suddenly changed his tone of voice and said: 'This country is so
wonderful that nobody could possibly want to leave it,' which I took to
mean that he didn't think it safe to discuss such matters.

Many do leave. A whole street seemed to be given over to the offices of
agencies offering jobs abroad. Exile of this kind is one of the many
curses of Burma, where an educated and intelligent people are held back by
a superstitious, ignorant and small-minded state.

In private, people told me how they often have to live for months by
pawning their most precious possessions, including the jewels that are a
favorite form of saving, working extra hard when the chance comes so as to
redeem their goods ready for the next hard time.

When they felt really safe they spat out scornful remarks about General
Than Shwe, the psychological warfare expert who heads the Junta. One man
pronounced the tyrant's name, paused for five eloquent seconds and then
pronounced the word 'Stupid!' with such force that we both collapsed into
laughter. Several people complained in low voices that the army stole much
of what they earned in oppressive taxes.

One man spoke of the near-impossible hardship of trying to bring up a
family on an income of £10 a month, with a 90-minute daily commute from
his village, hanging on to the bars of a truck as it bumped among the
potholes. Monks revealed that their state rice rations had been withdrawn
in revenge for their support of last year's anti-regime protests.
But I tried to make sure that all these encounters were completely
untraceable, entirely private and in places where nobody could possibly
have overheard. Nobody who spoke to me knew I was a journalist. I was safe
enough. If detected by the authorities, I would be expelled, perhaps after
a little rough handling. But for them to be caught speaking to me would
mean terror and ruin. I was determined not to put any Burmese person at
risk if I could help it.

There is open opposition here. Its heart is a forlorn, mildewed house,
once lovely but now as attractive as a tomb, which lies next to a great
lake in the north of the city.
I managed to get close enough to see the jauntily-painted red and yellow
gate, the only place in Burma that can now display the symbols of the
once-powerful National League for Democracy. But busloads of armed men
lurk down a side-road ready to squash any hint of protest or support.

And I had to view this from the far side of the road. Barbed-wire
barricades and inquisitive steel-helmeted police prevent anyone getting
near the front door, and the whole road is closed to traffic at night to
prevent visitors slipping in under cover of darkness. This, No 54
University Avenue, is the home of Aung San Suu Kyi, the hauntingly
beautiful and tragic leader of the resistance.

Hers is a series of sad stories. Her long-dead father, Aung San, is even
now the official hero of the state, a fact that has probably saved her
life. He was the acknowledged leader of the independence movement which
took Burma out of British control in 1947.

The General, as he is universally known, was a complicated figure who
collaborated energetically with the Japanese when it looked as if they
were winning, and then developed objections to their methods when they
began to lose the war.
He also wears a martyr's crown since he was assassinated before he could
take power and so has the blemish-free reputation reserved for politicians
who were murdered before they had a chance to make a mess.

His daughter did much of her growing up in India, where she fell under the
influence of Gandhi and his rejection of violence. Her refusal to support
bloody revolt is now causing hotter heads in Burma's opposition to whisper
that she should make way for them.

They will not find it easy to push her aside. Suu Kyi is terrifyingly
determined. She amazed and disturbed many of her own supporters when she
refused to go to the bedside of her dying husband, the Oxford academic
Michael Aris.

She feared, probably rightly, that if she went she would never be allowed
back to Burma. Even so, it is a sacrifice that no normal person would have
made. Now she must hope that elections promised for 2010 will take place,
and that they will at least free her from her house arrest.

But as things stand, she and the Generals must sit and wait in a permanent
state of frozen war. They dare not kill her, and she cannot destroy them,
but they are the ones in power and she is the one confined to a crumbling
suburban house where nobody can go.

Anyway, the Generals have left town, hoping to put themselves beyond the
reach of Suu Kyi and the people of Rangoon. In one of the oddest political
decisions in human history, they have shifted the capital to the remote,
undeveloped middle of the country. It is as if Gordon Brown, sick of being
criticized in London, relocated Westminster and Whitehall to the North
York Moors.

I tried three times to go to Nay Pyi Taw, the Royal Abode of Kings as this
place is called. I couldn't reach it by air, as I couldn't get permission
to go on the plane. I couldn't reach it by road, as cars containing
foreigners are diverted round it. But I finally succeeded in getting there
by taking the Mandalay-Rangoon express, whose tracks run right through it.

It is a bizarre mixture of Milton Keynes, Pyongyang and a Costa del Sol
retirement community. You come out of the forest, where pigs roam the
dusty streets of tiny villages, and the houses are made of split bamboo
and roofed with palm leaves. And all at once it is as if a giant hand has
reached down from space and planted a modern metropolis among the sugar
cane and the paddy fields. There are vast six-lane highways on which
cattle can roam in perfect safety since there is no traffic.

Hidden in low, wooded hills to the west are the secret villas of the
Junta. All around the tawny earth has been turned over to prepare the land
for ministries, barracks and perhaps another of Burma's enormous jails.

Just to the east, a misty blue ridge of mountains marks the beginning of
Shan State, one of Burma's many half-tamed and unsettled tribal provinces.

There is a super-modern railway station, in keen contrast to the ancient
train with its wooden seats, careering wildly over buckled tracks so that
luggage often tumbles from the racks on to the heads of travelers, who are
visibly bouncing up and down as we snort and rattle on our way.

The train does not stop at Nay Pyi Taw, since we have no Generals aboard,
but clatters on past streets of kitsch villas and curlicue hotels,
propaganda billboards, grandiose office blocks and a majestic but
unfinished pagoda, plainly intended to rival the mighty Shwedagon in size
if not in grace.

Perhaps it was the great cranes clustered round it but it reminded me
oddly of the enormous mosque begun by Saddam Hussein in Baghdad when he
was trying to prove he was really a devout Muslim.

Do the Generals fear that they, like Saddam, will be the victims of a
Western invasion?
This could explain why they have sited their new metropolis far from the
coast, to keep themselves safe from attack or kidnap. They worry too much.
Like Iraq, they possess oil and gas but they also have the kindly
protection of next-door China, always a ready customer for such things.
This puts them in the Mugabe class of dictatorship - subject to frequent
rude remarks and critical missions by eminent persons but ultimately safe
from invasion.

A more likely explanation is that they are afraid of their own people.
Just north of Rangoon's railway station is unsettling evidence of the
mistrust between rulers and ruled. A huge barracks sits there, plainly
sited so that troops can flood into the city centre in minutes if there is
trouble. But look at its walls and you will see that they are full of
relatively new loopholes in the brickwork, as if a siege is expected.

The same techniques can be seen on the outer walls of almost every
military establishment in Burma. This is not an army to defend the country
against its enemies but an army designed to defend the state against the
people.

Do they have much to fear? Apart from Aung San Suu Kyi and the monks,
whose mild pacifism makes them horribly easy to crush if they rise in
revolt, the only flickering trace of opposition is to be found in a
rubble-heaped side street on the wrong side of the tracks in Mandalay.

Here each night at 8.30, a small and incredibly brave group of people keep
a light of free speech burning in the surrounding darkness. And it is very
dark. For Mandalay at night makes Rangoon look like Manhattan.

Night falls here like a thick blanket. You must fumble your way along
unlit streets, hoping that you will not fall down one of the many yawning
holes in the pavement, down into the stinking drains beneath. Even the
state telephone bureau functions by candlelight. And in the few tourist
hotels, so empty that the bar staff volunteer to play pool with lonely
customers, the air-conditioning and lights frequently fail before the
generators kick in.

But do not be put off, for without tourists the symbolic, heroic
resistance of the Moustache Brothers would come to an end. They are
comedians who dared to mock the regime. For this crime - for tyranny is
terrified of laughter - two of them were imprisoned and set to work on
chain gangs.

Now released, they perform their act in English, laboriously learned, to
tiny foreign audiences on a miniature stage. In truth, the performance is
not very funny. But it is utterly magnificent.

It is a heartbreaking and touching thing to see these men and their
families daring to say the unsayable, to laugh at the deadly serious,
especially in the menacing blackness from which - at any time - vengeance
might suddenly emerge.

The brothers, who had no idea that I was a reporter the night they
entertained me, joke about the KGB and openly praise Aung San Suu Kyi. By
the time I saw this performance I was so used to the air of oppression
that I was lowering my own voice before saying anything remotely
controversial. Yet these courageous people say such things out loud.

All that protects them is the interest of the outside world. If the
tourists stop coming, how long can their brave demonstration go on? The
night I watched them, there were four of us in the audience. If the level
falls much below this will the regime feel it is safe to shut them down
and throw them in a dungeon? It is an alarming thought and raises the
strange question of the international boycott of Burma.

The only guidebook to the country - the teeth-gnashingly
politically-correct Lonely Planet - agonizes for pages about whether
anyone should go there at all. If they didn't, they presumably wouldn't
buy the guidebook.

But what strange selective concern this is. I was struck, the whole time I
was there, by how similar Burma is to Cuba, right down to the ancient
cars, the picturesque decay of the cities, the astonishing, dreamlike
natural beauty of the landscape and the uncorrupted charm and humbling
honesty of the people.

And that is not to mention the murderous military dictatorship sustained
by jittery and guilty old men who hide from sight, and the ever-present
surveillance. There is even a heroic dissident leader living under
miserable conditions in the heart of the capital - the noble Oswaldo Paya
- though because he challenges a dictatorship of the Left, nobody has
heard of him.

Yet Lonely Planet does not agonize over whether anyone should go on
holiday in Cuba, currently one of the world's most fashionable
destinations. It refers gushingly to that unhappy island's tyrant as Fidel
and makes lame excuses for his regime, asking for its repression to be
viewed 'in a relative context'.

Richard Branson, whose Virgin planes fly to Havana, would no doubt rather
have his beard waxed than open a service to Rangoon.

And the PC obsessives of the BBC, who cringingly call Bombay Mumbai and
Peking Beijing, still refuse to rename Rangoon Yangon and Burma Myanmar,
though the logic of doing so is the same.

The strange selective outrage of those who decided which countries are
unacceptable and which are not has a mysterious logic, but I suspect that
in this case the Burmese generals have somehow managed to get themselves
classified as 'Right-wing', which means that Guardian readers cannot go on
holiday there.

I long ago gave up lecturing other countries on how they should run
themselves. My duty is to stop my own nation going down the plughole of
tyranny, which has in my lifetime become a real and pressing possibility.

Burma sears the brain and the conscience. It is one of the most heart
stoppingly beautiful countries I have ever seen, and also one of the
ugliest.

On the shores of the majestic Irrawaddy River, children bend their small
bodies under heavy baskets of stones in brassy, stunning heat, carrying
them on to barges for piece-rate wages of less than a penny a load.

By the serene lake at Amarapura, amputees beg with their crude artificial
limbs lying next to their sore stumps. One of the loveliest prospects, the
misty, magical view from the top of Mandalay Hill as the sun starts to
sink, is crudely spoiled by a sprawling, pale yellow prison in the
foreground.

Should we long for a violent uprising, for gunfire in Rangoon, the corpses
of monks and splashes of blood around the Shwedagon Pagoda? Should we hope
for a Western invasion, British soldiers once again on the Road to
Mandalay (where enough of them have already left their bones)?

You may wish for these things if you like. I cannot. I can only say that
this is what it is like and hope that in time Burma finds its own kindly,
peaceful salvation suited to its immensely gentle people.

In the meantime, if you can, go to see the Moustache Brothers. They may
not make you laugh but by heaven they will show you what courage looks
like.

____________________________________

December 2008, Institute of Research on Contemporary South East Asia
Back to the old habits - isolationism or self-preservation of Burma's
military regime - Renaud Egreteau and Larry Jagan

Since 2003, many political events and diplomatic initiatives in connection
with Burma have proved that the military regime still basks in its
well-calculated isolationism. Willing to go “back to the old habits”
inherited from the autarchic and strictly controlled Ne Win regime
(1962-1988) as well as the Burmese kings traditions, this policy of
“isolationism without isolation” was clearly illustrated by the
entrenchment in Naypyidaw initiated in 2005, the careful courting of
regional powers – especially China, India and Russia – and the way the
SPDC has somehow “survived” the September 2007 and May 2008 crises and
external pressure it was the object. Given the international community’s
inability to exert any credible and concrete leverage over it, it has
somehow contorted its position.

For the past decades, regular purges within the Tatmadaw and the
politico-administrative structure, as well as a powerful but effective
xenophobic and nationalist propaganda have helped the Burmese military to
increase its grip on the country by rebuffing most foreign influences.
Used as a tool since U Nu’s parliamentary regime (most of its leaders
having been influenced by the nationalist movements that emerged in the
first part of the 20th century207), a calculated nationalism offers Burma
a powerful means to keep its isolationist credo. It has then all the
chances to be perpetuated, even in the case of a return to a civil and
democratic rule of law. It can indeed be argued that a Burmese democratic
government would favor a similar rejection of direct and widespread
external influences (Chinese, Indian but also Thai or even Western,
despite years of support to the democracy movement).

Consequently, the isolationist strategy has been astutely chosen and not
imposed by the outside world. More than external political sanctions,
diplomatic ostracism or economic boycott by Western powers, it is domestic
nationalism, xenophobia and insular habits that have given the impression
of a segregated Burma. Like a turtle that feels a danger, the Burmese
regime protects itself by huddling under its own carapace, waiting for any
storm to pass, including sadly, natural ones as in the case of the May
2008 Cyclone Nargis.

Although smoother relations with the international community might be
established, an external policy influenced by the xenophobic temptations
of the Burmese society is quite predictable.

In fact, as neutralism and an equidistant policy between Burma’s neighbors
are the best-suited policy given the country’s strategic position,
isolationist tendencies might nevertheless prevail. These skilful
tendencies would probably last as long as the whole international
community does not rethink its own approach of the Burmese conundrum.

For in practice, Burma is not as insulated as it seems. The regime has
left open many doors, and even chosen to open a few more, especially in
the last decade when it courted (or was courted by) Russia, Pakistan,
Saudi Arabia and even North Korea. The SPDC knows it needs a few
diplomatic and commercial overtures to maximize its control over the
country’s economy, at least more effectively than during Ne Win’s time,
given the international geopolitical watershed of the past two decades.
Wooing a few multinationals (especially in the energy sector), benefiting
from few strong trading partners (Singapore, Thailand, China), and
establishing loyal diplomatic allies in international forums (India,
China, Russia), and even democratic partners (Japan, South Korea, India,
somehow Australia) would appear enough, as long as there is no clear-cut
and coordinated policies from the rest of the international community --
as was the case in South Africa during the 1990s. New means, new
approaches, new partnerships based on engagement (but not endorsement) of
a military power that seems well entrenched are now much needed to ease,
and even start, any transitional process.




The full version of the article, "Back to the Old Habits - Isolationism or
the Self-Preservation of Burma's Military Regime", IRASEC Occasional Paper
No. 7, December 2008, 94 pages, was released by the Bangkok-based French
Institute of Research on Contemporary South East Asia (IRASEC). 
publications at irasec.com

____________________________________

December 15, NDI Democracy Luncheon
Remarks of Thin Thin Aung, Women’s League of Burma (Madeleine K. Albright
Award recipient)

Washington, DC - On behalf of the Women’s League of Burma, thank you. It
is a great honor to receive the Madeleine K. Albright Grant from NDI. We
see this award as international recognition of our work to empower women
to participate in political decision-making. It affirms the importance of
our efforts for the restoration of democracy in Burma. Your support has
rekindled our strength to continue the struggle. We are deeply honored to
share this occasion with Archbishop Desmond M. Tutu who serves as a source
of inspiration to our democracy movement.

Secretary Albright and NDI have long supported the democratization process
in Burma. The people of Burma greatly appreciate Secretary Albright’s
outspoken calls for change in Burma and her advocacy to those who are
indifferent to Burma’s problems. These acts of solidarity strengthen our
resolve.

It is my understanding that recipients of this award often share inspiring
and even hopeful stories at these luncheons. How much I wish I could do
so. Unfortunately, every aspect of life for the people of Burma continues
to deteriorate. As the reaction to the Saffron Revolution and the
aftermath of Cyclone Nargis showed, we are afflicted with a military
government that will do anything to hold onto power. It is inherently
fearful and violent; above all, it fears accounting for its deeds.

Under the military regime, practicing democracy and participating in
political activities have been classified as “crimes.” Political activists
have been severely punished. Just last month, more than 200 hundred
activists were imprisoned for up to 68 years and sent to jails far away
from their homes. One prominent female activist, Nilar Thien and her
husband Jimmy, were both sentenced to 65 years imprisonment. They had to
leave their four-month old daughter, who will be growing up without her
parents.

This is but one story, and there are thousands like it in Burma today. Yet
despite these harsh consequences, I am proud to say that women activists
still dare to speak out against injustice. The women of Burma still have
the courage to resist unjust laws and repressive rules.

There now are more than 2,000 political prisoners in Burma, including our
democratic leader and Nobel Peace Laureate, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who has
been under house arrest for 13 of the last 19 years.

Not only has the Burmese military regime been crushing all political
resistance, but it is using force to stay in power at any cost. During
last year’s Saffron Revolution, the regime killed and tortured Buddhist
monks. Last May, they heartlessly blocked emergency aid for cyclone
victims for weeks. Before the eyes of the world, day after day, the regime
showed that it would prefer that its people starve and remain homeless,
rather than admit that its corruption had made the disaster worse. 100,000
people died? One million died? Both are credible estimates for one of the
worst storms in history. We simply do not know, and the regime does not
care.

And away from the eyes of the world, where cameras were barred, the regime
did nothing, except proceed with a sham referendum on May the 10th,
forcing people to endorse their constitution and election in 2010. While
aid piled up in the capital, the regime rounded up storm victims and
forced them to vote.

Meanwhile, the regime’s armed forces and authorities continue to commit
crimes against humanity. Sexual violence against women is used
deliberately and systematically. In Burma, it is a matter of state policy.
Women and girls are assaulted with impunity throughout Burma, particularly
in the ethnic states, where international media cannot reach. There is a
mountain of testimony that these sexual crimes are not individual acts of
violence, but part of a systematic campaign conducted by the regime as a
weapon of war against women in ethnic states.

These atrocities do not take place in a vacuum. The inability of the
international community to apply leverage or persuasion to the military
regime causes the situation to fester. Worse, the policies of certain
governments that trade for Burma’s resources abet the cruelty and
repression. They have focused on business, they have protected their
interests, they have remained silent, they even have endorsed the regime’s
so-called “roadmap to democracy.” This has allowed the regime to ignore
international pressure for political change and national reconciliation,
starting with the release of all political prisoners.

We believe that the U.S. government has a great role to play in this
regard. I hope that the new administration will maintain pressure,
including targeted sanctions, against the Burmese military regime. I urge
the United States to convince Burma’s neighboring countries, particularly
China, India, and the Association of Southeast Asian nations, to review
their policies towards the Burmese military regime; and to support our
calls for a binding resolution from the UN Security Council to bring the
regime to the dialogue table which includes ethnic nationalities and other
stakeholders.

I once again would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to NDI and its
board members for choosing the Women’s League of Burma for this award.
Once the most developed economy in Southeast Asia, Burma is a shadow of
what it once was and could be again. We aspire to a Burma that is
democratic, free, and prosperous. We will use the award money to increase
women’s participation in social and political change in Burma. The women
of Burma will play an essential role in the future of our nation, and that
future will begin with their contribution to political change now.

Thank you very much.

____________________________________
PRESS RELEASE

December 16, Burma Campaign UK
Biggest ever Burma 'Dirty List' published

Burma Campaign UK has published a list of 170 companies that directly or
indirectly help to finance the military junta ruling Burma.

Thirty new companies have been added to the list, which includes 57 travel
and tourism companies.

In response, Voices for Burma spokesperson Cherie McCosker urged the
travel community to conduct its own independent research, claiming, “Many
of the travel companies on this list have been included for many years
despite having proved not to support the military junta, and instead
support the pro-democratic cause.”

You can see who's on the list and write a letter pressuring companies to
pull investments out of Burma (Myanmar) here:

http://www.burmacampaign.org.uk/dirty_list/dirty_list_print.html