BurmaNet News, February 26, 2009

[Editor]

February 26, 2009, Issue #3660


INSIDE BURMA
Mizzima News: Junta prepares for first ‘quarterly meeting’ of 2009
DVB: NLD discusses 2010 election participation
DVB: Censor board to switch to digital submissions

ON THE BORDER
Irrawaddy: Mae Sot raid nets about 500 migrant workers
Xinhua: Myanmar to grant cross-border tourists from China to travel deep
into country

BUSINESS / TRADE
Vietnam News: Business meet promotes Myanmar, Viet Nam trade
Xinhua: Myanmar-Indonesia trade fair to be held in Myanmar

HEALTH / AIDS
IRIN News: Majority of under-five deaths preventable - UNICEF

ASEAN
AP: Rights groups to ASEAN: Press Myanmar on abuses

REGIONAL
Irrawaddy: Ramos-Horta urges Obama to ease stance on Burma

INTERNATIONAL
AFP: US lashes 'brutal' Myanmar rights record
AP: Washington forging new Myanmar policy

OPINION / OTHER
VOA: Rethinking relations with Burma – Editorial
Irrawaddy: NLD must own up to its policy mistakes – Zarni

PRESS RELEASE
Amnesty International: Human rights should dominate ASEAN agenda


____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

February 26, Mizzima News
Junta prepares for first ‘quarterly meeting’ of 2009 – Mungpi

The Burmese junta is gearing up to hold its first military quarterly
meeting for 2009 in the second week of March, where it is likely to
discuss major issues including plans for the 2010 general elections,
sources in the army said.

The source said, following the meeting, the generals are likely to
announce the election law for the 2010 general elections.

The quarterly meeting is a gathering of military officers including
commanders of various military commands, brigade commanders, and up to the
rank of director-generals from various ministries. It is usually held in
Naypyitaw and attended by officers across the country.

But Aung Kyaw Zaw, a military analyst based on the Sino-Burma border, said
while a high percentage of generals are for  announcing the election law
following their discussion in the meeting, a section of the military,
particularly the older groups feel the announcement of the election law
should be further delayed.

“People like Aung Thaung and Kyaw Hsan think that they should declare the
election law now as they are sure that they have enough preparation,” he
said, referring to the junta’s Minister of Industry-1, and Minister for
Information.

But senior military leaders including Than Shwe and Maung Aye, who
witnessed the military’s failure in the 1990 elections, feel that the
announcement should be delayed in order to give opposition limited time
for preparation.

“This might be one area they will discuss in the quarterly meeting,” he
added.

The military usually holds three quarterly meetings in a year – in
January, May and September. But in 2008, the military only held two,
canceling a meeting in May. It also altered the timings of the meeting
with the last quarterly meeting held in November.

“To me, it seems, that the quarterly meeting has lost its essence and is
only used by a few top military leaders to explain their plans to their
lower ranks,” Aung Kyaw Zaw said.

According to him, the top five – Snr. Gen Than Shwe, Vice Snr. Gen Maung
Aye, Thura Shwe Mann, Prime Minister Thein Sein and Secretary (1) Tin Aung
Myint Oo – meet in advance and take major decisions before the meeting and
explaining to their junior officers the plan ahead.

“A few suggestions and discussions are made during the meeting, but major
decisions are taken by the five before the meeting,” Aung Kyaw Zaw said.

Most reshuffles in the military takes place during the quarterly meetings
and most military observers said the last quarterly meeting, usually in
September, is always crucial in announcing major reshuffles in the
military.
____________________________________

February 26, Democratic Voice of Burma
NLD discusses 2010 election participation – Aye Nai

National League for Democracy elected representatives and organising
committee members from 10 townships in Rangoon division met at party
headquarters to discuss whether to contest the 2010 election.

The meeting was held on 24 February and attended by Rangoon division
organising committee secretary Dr Win Naing, chairman Thakhin Soe Myint
and vice-chairman Dr Than Nyein.

"We discussed matters such as whether to contest the election or not and
the party's position if it does not contest," Dr Win Naing said.

"What we had already said clearly is we do not accept this constitution
and as the 2010 election is to be held on the basis of this constitution,
we haven't considered contesting it yet," he said.

"But if we can carry out a bilateral and smooth review of the proposed
constitution we would have a reason to contest the election."

The meeting was attended by township representatives and elected MPs from
Kyauktada, Panbedan, Latha, Lanmadaw, Thanlyin, Kyauktan, Thonegwa, Kayan,
Thaketa and Dawpon. More meetings between the ten townships are scheduled
for 27 February, 3 March and 6 March, Win Naing said.

The NLD won the majority of seats and votes in the 1990 election but the
ruling State Peace and Development Council failed to transfer power and is
preparing to hold new elections in 2010.

The party has issued statements criticising the holding of a new election
without recognising the result of the 1990 vote.

____________________________________

February 26, Democratic Voice of Burma
Censor board to switch to digital submissions – Ahunt Phone Myat

Burmese government’s press censor board is planning to change from the
current paper system to digital, according to the Ministry of
Information’s Press Scrutiny and Registration Division director, Major
Tint Swe.

A weekly news journal published in last week quoted a speech by Tint Swe
at a journalist training programme on February 20 in which he said a
computerised system would be introduced for viewing press materials
submitted to the censor board for approval before they are published.

Win Nyein, editor in chief of the well-respected Ray of Light journal said
the new system was unlikely to bring about much change.

“There won’t be much of a difference, apart from that we will have to use
memory sticks or discs to submit articles for the censor board’s approval
instead of printing them out on paper as we do now,” said Win Nyein.

“The major only said it at the training program workshop, there has been
no official announcement about it yet.”

Another weekly news journal editor in Rangoon speculated that most
publishers and printing offices would welcome the new digital system as it
would save them from spending money on printing every time the censor
board wants them to make changes.

The Press Scrutiny and Registration Division was unavailable for comment.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

February 26, Irrawaddy
Mae Sot raid nets about 500 migrant workers – Lawi Weng

About 500 Burmese migrant workers and their children were taken into
custody in Mae Sot after Thai authorities raided their homes on Thursday,
says a Burmese migrant rights group.

Myo Zaw, a member of Yaung Chi Oo Workers Association based in Mae Sot,
said the crackdown took place at different locations in Mae Sot.

The migrant workers were rounded up by police and will be deported to
Burma, he said.

Htay Oo, a Burmese migrant worker in Mae Sot, said police arrested most of
the people, including children, in her neighborhood around 4 am.

She said most migrant families had information about the coming crackdown,
but they didn’t leave to sleep outside of town to avoid arrest.

A Mon language teacher in Mae Sot said that one of his students was
arrested, and he asked police to release him so he could go to school.

“But, they told me they will deport him to Burma soon, so he can come back
to class [later],” he said.

Most migrants had been informed about the crackdown as early as Monday.
Some Burmese political offices closed, fearing they too would be part of
the raids.

Thai authorities tightened security in Mae Sot during the week. Police,
immigration officers and Thai military intelligence were all involved in
the crackdown.

The Yaung Chi Oo Workers Association says that there are about 100,000
Burmese migrant workers, most of them illegal migrants, awaiting new
worker registration permits in the Mae Sot area. About 40,000 are legally
registered.

About 3,000 Burmese workers were laid off recently due to the global
financial crisis in Thailand and an estimated 500 returned home, according
to the labor rights group.

Many migrant workers only earn enough money to provide for their daily
food. If they
are arrested and sent back to Burma, they usually re-enter Thailand and
resume working, many in the factories that surround Mae Sot.

There are an estimated 1.5 million legal and illegal Burmese migrant
workers in Thailand.

Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch has sent a letter to the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) calling for member governments to respect
international human rights norms to ensure that recruitment, employment
and repatriation of migrants is handled fairly.

Some Asean countries continue to have inadequate and poorly enforced
migrant regulations, the group said. It singled out Malaysia and Thailand
for failing to adequately investigate allegations of collusion between
government officials and trafficking gangs on the Malay-Thai border.

The rights group called for the end of unlawful restrictions that prevent
freedom of movement and association among migrant workers, and the need to
ensure migrant workers have access to justice.

It noted that Asean has declared it will address some of these issues, but
many member countries have yet to implement concrete improvements on the
ground.
____________________________________

February 26, Xinhua
Myanmar to grant cross-border tourists from China to travel deep into country

Myanmar will grant visa-on-arrival for cross-border tourists entering by
road from Teng Chong, southwestern Yunnan province of China, to travel
deep into Myanmar's tourist sites by air en route the border town of
Myitkyina in the northernmost Kachin state, local media reported Thursday.

As part of its bid to promote cross-border tourism with China, Myanmar
will also grant such visa on arrival for tourists arriving Myitkyina
through chartered flights from Teng Chong international airport, as well
as other international airports of China to travel far up to such tourist
sites as Yangon, Mandalay, ancient city of Bagan and famous resort of Ngwe
Saung, the Weekly Eleven News said.

Normally, cross-border tourists from China are allowed to travel up to
Myitkyina only and formal visa is required for traveling deep into the
country.

The introduction of the visa-on-arrival has removed difficulties for
tourists to obtain Myanmar visa from the Myanmar consulate-general
stationed in Kunming, the report said, setting that leaving Myanmar on
return trip for those who travel by road from Teng Chong to Myitkyina
shall take the original route of crossing back the border gate.

Myanmar's move also came after the inauguration of the 96-kilometer
Myitkyina-Kanpikete section in the Myanmar side in April 2007 and the Teng
Chong International Airport on Feb. 16 this year.

The overall 224-kilometer Myanmar-China cross-border road extends as
Myitkyina-Kanpikete-Teng Chong with the prior Myitkyina-Kanpikete section
lying on the Myanmar side, while the latter standing as a cross-border
section of Kanpikete-Teng Chong, which is a tunnel road.

The overall highway of Myitkyina-Teng Chong, which costs a total of 1.23
billion yuans, is regarded as a road of facilitating exchange and
cooperation to link China with India, Myanmar and Bangladesh.

Meanwhile, the Chinese tourism ministry formally opened up the border
tourism line of Teng Chong-Myitkyina on Nov. 3, 2008.

According to the 7-Day News, the opening of the facilities have brought
about 500 visitors per month and the number is expected to grow to 2,000
per month in the coming years.

Official statistics show that in the first nine months of 2008, a total of
188,931 world tourists visited Myanmar, the number of which dropped by
24.9 percent compared with the corresponding period of 2007.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

February 26, Vietnam News
Business meet promotes Myanmar, Viet Nam trade

Two-way trade between Myanmar and Viet Nam amounted to US$108.2 million
last year, up 11 per cent over 2007, according to the Ministry of Industry
and Trade.

The ministry presented the data during a meeting between representatives
of Myanmar and Vietnamese businesspeople yesterday.

Representatives of Myanmar’s Trade Ministry and Viet Nam’s Ministry of
Industry and Trade as well as 50 companies from both countries attended
the meeting, which aims to promote business relations between the two
ASEAN-member countries.

Bilateral trade between Myanmar and Viet Nam has attained significant
growth since the fourth meeting of the Myanmar-Viet Nam Joint Trade
Co-operation Committee in January 2007, according to the chief of the
representative office of the Ministry of Industry and Trade in HCM City,
Phan The Hao.

He said in 2008, Viet Nam attained an export turnover of $32.6 million to
Myanmar, a year-on-year increase of 49.6 per cent, making Viet Nam one of
the top 16 exporters to Myanmar.

Viet Nam’s major goods exported to Myanmar include textile and garment
products ($6.1 million) and plastics ($2.5 million).

Meanwhile, Viet Nam’s imports from Myanmar reached $75.6 million, up 0.3
per cent over 2007, making Viet Nam one of the top buyers of Myanmar’s
goods.

Major imports from Myanmar include wood and wood products ($57.1 million)
as well as rubber ($4.8 million).

According to figures released at the meeting, two-way trade between the
two countries in 2007 amounted to $97.2 million, up 20 per cent over 2006
and 68.4 per cent over 2005.

The two countries still have great business potential to be tapped,
especially in the sectors of agriculture and forestry, textiles and
garments, electronics, electrical appliances, medical and pharmaceutical
equipment and consumer goods, according to Hao.

The deputy minister for trade of Myanmar and deputy president of the Union
of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Brig-Gen Aung
Tun, said the meeting offered Myanmar and Vietnamese businesses an
opportunity to better understand the markets in each country and promote
bilateral trade.

"Viet Nam is one of the major trading partners of Myanmar in the ASEAN
region. Both countries have intensified co-operation in economic and trade
and investment since Myanmar adopted a market-oriented system in early
1990," said Aung Tun.
____________________________________

February 26, Xinhua
Myanmar-Indonesia trade fair to be held in Myanmar

Businessmen of Myanmar and Indonesia are coordinating to hold a trade fair
in Myanmar's former capital of Yangon in July this year to boost bilateral
trade.

The Myanmar-Indonesia trade fair, sponsored by the Union of Myanmar
Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry and the Chamber of
Commerce Industry of Indonesia, will comprise over 60 booths from the two
countries, the 7-Day News said Thursday.

On display at the Myanmar booths will be agricultural produces, while that
at the Indonesian's will be metals, electrical goods, medicines, and
textile, the sources said.

Indonesia mainly imports from Myanmar red onion and beans and pulses.

Indonesia is Myanmar's fourth largest trading partner among members of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations after Thailand, Singapore and
Malaysia, having a bilateral trade with Myanmar standing at 293.96 million
U.S. dollars in the fiscal year of 2007-08.

Indonesia's exports to Myanmar amounted to 207.24 million dollars, while
its imports from Myanmar valued at 86.72 million dollars, Myanmar official
statistics show.

In 2006, Indonesia established its first direct sea trade route with
Myanmar operating between Jakarta and Yangon, broadening its network in
the Southeast Asian region, according to earlier local reports.

____________________________________
HEALTH / AIDS

February 26, IRIN News (UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs)
Majority of under-five deaths preventable - UNICEF

Most deaths of children under five are preventable or treatable in
Myanmar, according to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

The Under 5 Mortality Survey (2002-2003), conducted by the government and
UNICEF, reported the main causes of early death as acute respiratory
infection (21.1 percent), brain infection (13.9 percent), diarrhoea (13.4
percent), septicemia (10.7 percent) and prematurity (7.5 percent).

About three-quarters of all deaths occurred in the first year.

"Over two-thirds of child deaths could be prevented by inexpensive but
proven high impact services like immunisation, better case management with
antibiotics, insecticide-treated bed nets, supplementation of Vitamin A
and other micronutrients," Osamu Kunii, chief of health and nutrition at
UNICEF, told IRIN in the former Burmese capital, Yangon.

As part of its Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Myanmar has pledged to
reduce its under-five mortality rate by two-thirds by 2015, from 130 per
1,000 live births in 1990 to 43.

"To achieve the goals we need more internal efforts and external supports,
especially resource mobilisation such as funding," Kunii said, emphasising
the importance of better collaboration and coordination between
government, UN and NGO partners before 2015.

Greater awareness

But while the government and its partners work to expand health services
to remote areas of the country, the public should also seek better
healthcare for their children.

"We also have to put more focus on [the] behaviour change of families, and
change the community towards supportive, healthy and hygienic environments
for children and women,” he said, explaining that without parents’
cooperation, any initiative would be ineffective in reducing child
mortality.

That applied to using treated mosquito nets, for example, as malaria is a
major cause of infant death, and changing women’s diet. According to
health personnel, traditionally many women avoid certain foods during
pregnancy as well as during lactation in the belief they may harm the
baby.

“Many women here avoid some foods which are in fact good for their babies,
but eat other foods [that are] bad for babies. For instance, as a result
of Vitamin B1 deficiency, so-called infantile beriberi occurs. It has been
the major cause of infant deaths in this country," the UNICEF specialist
said.

According to the State of the World's Children 2009, about 15 percent of
infants are low birth-weight in the country. "Making mothers healthy is
very crucial for saving children and making children healthier," Kunii
said.

Importance of breastfeeding

He also suggested women should be encouraged to breastfeed exclusively as
it is the simplest but most effective intervention to fight malnutrition
and infectious diseases during the first six months of a child’s life.

However, only 15 percent of infants in Myanmar are exclusively breastfed.
According to global research, increasing breastfeeding could reduce child
mortality by 13 percent.

“We could save more children by mothers’ behavioural changes for infant
and young children’s feeding practices.

“Just providing knowledge and raising awareness hardly changes people’s
behaviour. To reduce individual risk behaviours, people need support from
their family, peers, community and experts. We need to help communities
create such environments to change individuals’ risk behaviours and
protect children and women,” Kunii said.

In an effort to reduce the risk of child deaths, UNICEF is working with
the government and other partners on immunisation drives, providing
essential drugs and other supplies, Vitamin A supplementation and
de-worming, the prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission, capacity
building for basic and community health workers, and other critical child
and maternal health activities.

“The emergency response to Cyclone Nargis has made us confident that all
the partners can work together to achieve the same goals with the same
vision. I’m sure we can do the same in achieving MDGs 4- for saving [a]
child’s life,” Kunii said.

____________________________________
ASEAN

February 26, Associated Press
Rights groups to ASEAN: Press Myanmar on abuses

International human rights groups urged leaders of Southeast Asia
gathering for their annual summit Thursday to press military-ruled Myanmar
to end its rights abuses.

The United States also blasted Myanmar's junta for having "brutally
suppressed dissent" through a campaign of extrajudicial killings,
disappearances and torture.

London-based Amnesty International said the leaders of the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations "must be empowered to effectively address human
rights in Myanmar."

The criticism comes as the 10-member bloc — long slammed as a talk shop
that forges agreements by consensus and steers away from confrontation —
prepares for a three-day summit at Cha-am, a Thai beach resort.
Preliminary meetings began Thursday.

The group's defense ministers, meeting separately at the seaside resort of
Pattaya, were met by about 300 anti-government demonstrators aligned with
ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra who are also staging protests in
the Thai capital, Bangkok.

The protesters, dubbed "red shirts" because of their favored attire, say
they want ASEAN leaders to know that the current Thai government came into
power last December not through elections but through a court order that
dissolved the ruling pro-Thaksin political party.

Although reform in Myanmar, also known as Burma, may be discussed on the
sidelines of the conference, ASEAN traditionally shies away from criticism
of its members.

"I think we are an ASEAN family — anything of concern we can talk to one
another without making demands and questioning, so the possibility of
having a discussion is always there," Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya
told reporters when asked about the pressure from human rights groups to
focus on the Myanmar issue.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda said he urged Myanmar's
foreign minister, Nyan Win, to fully follow through on pledges of
democratic reforms and elections by 2010.

"We wish too that Myanmar is actively engaging with the international
community," he said.

He said Nyan Win noted that Myanmar had recently released a handful of
political prisoners. "We encouraged him to do more," the Indonesian
minister said.

The delegates are expected to devote most of their time to grappling with
how the region can best cope with the global economic crisis.

Thailand, which currently holds ASEAN's rotating chairmanship and is
hosting the summit, bills the meeting as a turning point for the bloc.

It is the first time leaders will meet since the group signed a landmark
charter in December. The document made ASEAN a legal entity and moves it a
step closer toward the goal of establishing a single market by 2015 and
becoming a European Union-like community.

The charter includes several provisions addressing human rights, including
one that calls for the establishment of a human rights body.

New York-based Human Rights Watch, in a letter to ASEAN Secretary-General
Surin Pitsuwan, urged the summit to address "the dire human rights
situation in Burma" and also improve treatment of refugees, asylum seekers
and migrants in the region.

Thailand has come in for international criticism for its treatment of
Rohingya refugees from Myanmar. Hundreds of the Muslim asylum seekers went
missing, feared drowned, as the Thai military forcibly expelled
approximately 1,000 who had arrived in southwest Thailand.

The plight of the stateless Rohingya boat people who have recently also
washed up on the shores of Malaysia and Indonesia will be another issue
discussed on the sidelines but not as part of the summit's formal agenda.

ASEAN's 10 members are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia,
Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

In its annual report on the state of human rights around the world, the
U.S. State Department on Wednesday criticized Myanmar's junta for a range
of abuses including the holding of more than 2,100 political prisoners,
the continued detention of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and a
brutal military campaign against ethnic minority groups.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

February 26, Irrawaddy
Ramos-Horta urges Obama to ease stance on Burma

East Timorese President Jose Ramos-Horta has called on the United States
to use the “international goodwill” generated by Barack Obama’s historic
presidency to help end Burma’s political crisis.

Speaking in Washington on Wednesday, Ramos-Horta said that the
decades-long impasse in Burma would be “one of the easiest” in the world
to resolve if the US ended its policy of isolating the ruling regime.

“I know that the junta in Burma is desperate for changes and this is a
unique opportunity for the US to engage them,” he said.

Ramos-Horta, who has been meeting with senior US officials, including
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, since addressing the UN Security
Council in New York on February 19, has long been an outspoken critic of
Western sanctions on Burma.

In an interview with The Irrawaddy in February 2004, the Nobel Peace Prize
winner described sanctions as “the moral equivalent of waging a war.”

“The difference is only that a war kills people immediately. Economic and
financial sanctions often cause death, but it is invisible because it
happens more slowly,” he said.

His latest statement echoed this sentiment.

“When you look at the situation in Myanmar [Burma] or Cuba, when you
punish a country for the perceived sin of the regime, the consequence is
that you also have collateral damage among the people,” he said on
Wednesday.

Washington has indicated that it is looking at other ways to promote
political reform in Burma. It remains unclear, however, if this means that
it will ease sanctions on the junta for its human rights abuses and
persecution of the country’s democratic opposition.

During a recent tour of Asia, Clinton said that the US was “looking at
steps that might influence the current Burmese government, and we’re also
looking for ways that we could more effectively help the Burmese people.”

But on the same day that Ramos-Horta made his comments in Washington, the
US State Department released a report saying the junta was “brutally”
suppressing its people.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

February 26, Agence France Presse
US lashes 'brutal' Myanmar rights record

The United States lashed out at the Myanmar regime's human rights record
Wednesday, saying the military was "brutally" suppressing its citizens and
razing entire villages.

In an annual global report on human rights, the State Department said
Myanmar's ruling junta carried out numerous extrajudicial killings along
with rape and torture without punishing anyone responsible.

"The regime brutally suppressed dissent," it said, faulting the junta for
"denying citizens the right to change their government and committing
other severe human rights abuses."

Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, crushed a 2007 uprising led by Buddhist
monks, killing at least 31 people, according to the UN. In May last year,
a cyclone left 138,000 people dead or missing.

"The regime showed contempt for the welfare of its own citizens when it
persisted in conducting a fraudulent referendum in the immediate
aftermath" of the cyclone, the State Department said.

It said that Myanmar also "delayed international assistance that could
have saved many lives."

The regime forcibly relocated people away from their homes, particularly
in areas dominated by ethnic minorities, with troops then confiscating
their property or looting their possessions, the report said.

"Thousands of civilians were displaced from their traditional villages --
which often were then burned to the ground -- and moved into settlements
tightly controlled by government troops in strategic areas," the report
said.

"In other cases villagers driven from their homes fled into the forest,
frequently in heavily mined areas, without adequate food, security or
basic medical care," it said.

The State Department also said that women and members of certain minority
groups are completely absent in the government and the judiciary.

Myanmar's most famous woman, pro-democracy advocate and Nobel laureate
Aung San Suu Kyi, has been under house arrest for most of the last 19
years.
____________________________________

February 26, Associated Press
Washington forging new Myanmar policy – Denis D. Gray

Reforming Myanmar's harsh military rule may not rank at the top of
President Barack Obama's foreign policy goals, but it's one he will find
among the most difficult to achieve.

For half a century, formidable forces rebel armies, uprisings, economic
sanctions, pressure by the United Nations have attempted to dislodge or at
least temper Myanmar's ruling junta. All have failed.

The generals of Myanmar, also known as Burma, continue to crush popular
protests with guns, commit atrocities against ethnic minorities and
currently hold more than 2,000 political prisoners, including
pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate who
has been under house arrest for more than 13 of the past 19 years.

So can any new approach by Obama effect meaningful change in Myanmar?

Options in his arsenal appear limited, but some will be tried, and they
could prove important.

"If there is going to be any change in international policy which will
make a difference, it's going to have to come from Washington. The U.S.
remains a key player," says Thant Myint-U, a Burmese historian and former
U.N. official. "For the Burmese government, the U.S. holds out what they
want, which is international acceptability and respect, and an end to its
pariah status."

A prominent Southeast Asian politician agreed.

"Obama could be a pivotal leader (on the issue) because of his high
concern for democracy and human rights," Philippine Senator and former
Senate President Aquilino Pimentel told the Associated Press.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, on her recent Asian swing,
indicated Washington was "looking at what steps we might take that might
influence the current Burmese government and we're also looking for ways
that we could more effectively help the Burmese people."

Analysts foresee more carefully crafted U.S. sanctions, greater
cooperation with the United Nations and others to forge a common front on
Myanmar, and trying to convince China to exert influence on its close
ally. But employing a carrot and a stick, humanitarian aid may also be
increased.

"Obama's approach to foreign policy, a stress on common action among
allies and negotiation, will be more effective than Bush's unilateralism
and moralistic hectoring," says Donald M. Seekins, a Myanmar expert at
Japan's Meio University.

Obama's new U.N. Ambassador Susan E. Rice has said there remained "scope
for greater regional and international action to pressure Burma's
dictators," including multilateral sanctions and getting Myanmar's
Southeast Asian neighbors to support tougher action.

But she warned Myanmar may represent "one of the most intractable
challenges for the global community."

In a country where many still regard the United States as a potential
savior, there is skepticism that the new president can loosen the junta's
grip on power but also some hope.

Myanmar, under the military's grip since 1962, may be one of the few
countries where many say they would welcome an invasion by the United
States or at least a bombing of the junta's remote, bunker-like capital of
Naypyitaw.

Although censors banned the publication of Obama's inauguration speech,
many managed access and interpreted his remarks about the world's
dictators as an open message to Myanmar's generals.

"President Obama was referring to Myanmar. He is willing to help the
Myanmar government if they are ready to accept American assistance, but
also gave a strong signal that America will not tolerate corrupt regimes,"
said lawyer Maung Maung Gyi, citing Obama's warning to those "who cling to
power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent," and
Washington's readiness to assist those who would "unclench your fist."

has come out in support of sanctions against the junta, and during the
presidential campaign likened Suu Kyi to the late American civil rights
leader Martin Luther King Jr. The sanctions, which have strong bipartisan
backing, include a post-1997 ban on all U.S. investments in Myanmar and
the freezing of U.S. assets of junta leaders.

In the past, Washington has also tried to exert some pressure through the
United Nations and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations,
which includes Myanmar. But China, Russia and India all with economic or
strategic interests in Myanmar have blocked such moves while ASEAN's
policy of noninterference has hindered reform in Myanmar.

The annual summit of ASEAN leaders, hosted by Thailand later this week, is
almost certainly to be another case of what the Burmese jokingly call
"NATO" No Action, Talk Only on the Myanmar issue.

But some Southeast Asian figures are pressing for both more ASEAN as well
as U.S. action on Myanmar.

"ASEAN has to flex its muscle more. ASEAN should be in the forefront of
the struggle for human rights in Myanmar but probably the European Union
and the United States can impose some measures that will compel Myanmar's
military rulers to address the plight of its people," Pimentel said in
Manila.

This history caused Clinton to lament: "It is an unfortunate fact that
Burma seems impervious to influences from anyone. The path we have taken
in imposing sanctions hasn't influenced the Burmese junta, but ...
reaching out and trying to engage them has not influenced them either."

Washington currently applies political and economic sanctions against
Myanmar because of its poor human rights record and failure to hand over
power to a democratically elected government.

Thant Myint-U of Singapore's Institute for Southeast Asian Studies, said
the sanctions would make sense "if the U.S. was willing to make Burma it's
No. 1 priority and use all its leverage with China and India to make them
global and that's not going to happen."

Washington instead should move ahead with direct talks and real engagement
in an effort to influence the next generation of military leaders, he
said, because they hold the key to change.

Associated Press Writers Foster Klug in Washington and Jim Gomez in Manila
contributed to this report.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

February 26, Voice of America
Rethinking relations with Burma – Editorial

President Barack Obama has held out his hand to world leaders seeking
engagement, rather than confrontation to solve international disputes.
This entails a review of the way the United States deals with specific
countries, and such an effort is now under way regarding the government of
Burma.

The U.S. government has long sought to encourage peaceful change in that
Southeast Asian nation and has promoted genuine dialogue with opposition
groups as necessary for transition to a representative government that
responds to the will of its people. Since the 1960s, Burma has been
controlled by a military junta that tolerates no opposition and keeps
tight control of the nation's economy.

More than two thousand political prisoners languish in Burmese jails, a
number that has doubled in the past 18 months, and democracy activist
leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, has
remained under house arrest for the majority of the past 19 years. In
response, the U.S. has maintained economic sanctions and visa bans against
members of the junta and its top supporters, but with no appreciable
change in attitude by the generals in Rangoon.

On her recent visit to Asia, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the
U.S. is looking at the best ways to influence the Burmese regime,
acknowledging that neither sanctions nor engagement have worked. No
decisions have been made, but there is a clear goal to develop a policy
that ultimately benefits the Burmese people in their desire to shape the
future of their own country.

In what the regime touts as a nod toward reform, the Burmese government
has planned elections next year under a constitution approved in a
referendum that was neither free nor fair, and conducted amid the turmoil
following Cyclone Nargis, which devastated parts of the country. But it
has a long way to go before achieving true representative government,
since the military is guaranteed a quarter of the seats in both the upper
and lower houses of parliament. In its review of its approach to Burma,
U.S. leaders will have much to consider.

____________________________________

February 26, Irrawaddy
NLD must own up to its policy mistakes – Zarni

Burma’s National League for Democracy (NLD) has been sending conflicting
messages about western sanctions.

Much is admirable about the NLD’s endurance in the uphill struggle to
force the Burmese military to enter into dialogue with it as a political
equal. However, the NLD leadership needs to come clean on the impact of
sanctions on the country, and own up to the policy mess it has helped
create over the past two decades.

In a February 24 article, Mizzima quoted NLD spokesman Nyan Win as saying:
“We have nothing to withdraw, as the economic sanctions were not imposed
by us but are only concerned with the country that imposed the sanctions.
And we have not done anything that the junta accused us of doing.”

As a lead organizer who helped build the US sanctions and boycott
campaign, I personally know for a fact that the top NLD leadership, most
specifically Aung San Suu Kyi herself, was closely involved in the
sanctions campaign after her release from her first period of house arrest
in July 1995.

Our campaign “pigeons” based outside Burma slipped into Rangoon to deliver
her our campaign slogans and policy advice. The NLD leader then personally
modified and/or blessed these quotes and messages, which we subsequently
disseminated worldwide in support of the sanctions, boycotts and media
campaigns. She had moral authority and international appeal. We had
campaigners’ zeal and strategic capacities.

In fact, as far back as June 4, 1989, the Bangkok Post reported on her
public call for an international trade and economic boycott. Since then,
she has not publicly shifted her position, despite the fact that domestic,
regional and international realities are no longer conducive to the use of
sanctions.

Originally our “targeted sanctions” campaign was aimed at hurting the
generals through their pockets. Strategically, we had hoped to compel the
regime to enter into dialogue with her, marrying her non-violent campaign
inside the country with international clamor for change in Burma through
western sanctions, diplomatic isolation, media campaigns and other
punitive measures at the United Nations.  These efforts were to be
supplemented by the armed resistance along the Burmese-Thai borders.

To any dispassionate analyst, this “inside-outside” strategy has clearly
failed.

The Free Burma Coalition, which spearheaded the western consumer and
tourism boycotts, sanctions lobby and media campaigns, was in part
responsible for the blocking of the junta’s initial (limited) economic
openings in the 1990s, and in consequence any political dividends which
may have come from such openings.

Worse still, our well-meaning activism in the West drove, however
indirectly, thousands of female workers from the country’s textile
industry into economically vulnerable positions, including prostitution
and cross-border migrant work.

In the 20 years since we hatched this campaign in the US—12,000 miles away
from our country and her realities—the generals have only grown richer,
further entrenched and more confident, thanks largely to the country’s
strategic natural resources such as gas and oil, the global extractive
industry, and the support and cooperation they receive from the rising
Asian powers, such as China and India.

The NLD, the flagship opposition party, no longer inspires the same degree
of confidence among the dissidents, neither does it continue to capture
the hearts and minds of the bulk of the Burmese citizens. Western
governments, the NLD’s greatest supporters, appear to be losing faith in
the party’s strategic leadership.

During her Asian tour last week, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
announced that the US was reviewing its Burma sanctions policy and hinted
at a possible policy shift.

In Washington, a cross-party consensus on sanctions is emerging, to the
effect that they are not serving US interests. Republican Senator Richard
Lugar, who chaired the Senate Foreign Affairs Sub-Committee, has
acknowledged the futility of 47 years of economic isolation against Cuba.

We know the successive military governments must be held responsible for
the negative consequences of their policy and leadership failures since
1962, by virtue of the fact that they make policy and political decisions
unilaterally and undemocratically.

Principles of accountability and transparency should apply to tyrants and
democrats alike.  I call on the NLD leadership to reflect honestly on the
failures of their policies and their impact on society at large, in order
for the whole of the opposition movement, which takes cues from Suu Kyi,
to move on spiritually and strategically.

The critics of the “constructive engagement” approach have pointed out
that engagement with the regime has not worked either. They are
right—“constructive engagement” only concerns the generals, rather than
civil society.

It is the NGOs, professional associations, chambers of commerce,
educational institutions, global citizens, the media, and civil society
groups that are best positioned to help open up Burma—in all aspects.

Proactive citizen participation in political and economic processes is the
foundation for an open and tolerant society, without which no democracy
can function. The development of an indigenous business and commercial
sector must be seen as part of the change process.

We need to work to develop an open, tolerant society out of the existing
conservative and militaristic society. An open society cannot be built at
the policy gunpoint of sanctions, any more than instant national
reconciliation and dialogue can be imposed by UN resolutions.

I am far less optimistic about high level engagement with the regime than
engagement at the level of organizations, institutions and associations in
technical fields, media, culture and art, higher and basic education,
public health, agriculture, sports, travel, research, commerce, etc.

If the ultimate goal of democratization is the emergence of an open
society which can sustain democratic processes, new policies need to be
created to help open up Burmese society and institutions—including the
military, exposing them all to the ways of the democratic world.

The NLD leadership can inject life into its politics by choosing to
publicly acknowledge the need to adjust its own tried and failed policies
and strategies.

Parties, governments and leaders all over the world make mistakes. There
is no shame in acknowledging them. Even Burma’s national hero Aung San
recognized his mistake in collaborating with Japanese Fascists to fight
the British imperialists and he reversed his stance.

The NLD would do well to draw inspiration from his legacy, to save
themselves from going down in history as principled but failed leaders
whose policies have further impoverished and isolated the society that has
been reeling from decades of widespread poverty and societal isolation.

The NLD leadership should place people’s well-being above the party’s
principles or leaders’ “face” by practicing the policy accountability and
transparency that they preach.

Even if one disagrees with the “middle class first, democracy second” view
of many Asian leaders, one must not overlook the fact that democracy is
not just a political process, but also an economic and cultural one,
requiring change in all spheres.

We need to debate and formulate solutions for Burma in the genuine spirit
of democracy, instead of stigmatizing anti-sanctions analysts and
demonizing the soldiers.  It is not enough to call for dialogue between
the two supreme leaders, Aung San Suu Kyi and Snr-Gen Than Shwe.

After all, democracy is not about the leaders, however brave, noble and
admirable. It is about the people, their daily lives, needs and concerns.

Zarni is founder of the Free Burma Coalition and Visiting Research Fellow
at Oxford University (2006-09).

____________________________________
PRESS RELEASE

February 26, Amnesty International
Human rights should dominate ASEAN agenda

Amnesty International called on ASEAN member states to move human rights
to the top of the agenda of the ASEAN summit, scheduled to take place this
weekend in Thailand, if they are to demonstrate their commitment to the
ASEAN Charter.

“The treatment of the Rohingya boat people has highlighted the urgent need
for regional action on human rights,” said Donna Guest, Amnesty
International’s Asia Pacific Deputy Director.  “ASEAN must act now to
address human rights concerns in Southeast Asia, many of which are having
a negative impact regionally and even globally.”

On the eve of the summit in Thailand, Amnesty International said that
while ASEAN has made a start in recognizing human rights concerns in the
region, much more needs to be done.

All members of ASEAN have now ratified the ASEAN Charter, which contains
several provisions addressing human rights, including one that calls for
the establishment of a human rights body.  Amnesty International said that
this body must be strong, professional, independent, and representative
and apply international standards.  The organization also called on all
ASEAN states to ratify key human rights treaties, which the human rights
body can then assist states in implementing.

“One of the challenges facing a future ASEAN human rights body is the dire
human rights situation in Myanmar,” said Donna Guest. “Violations in this
ASEAN member state have been going on for decades, and include crimes
against humanity. To be worthy of its name, the body must be empowered to
effectively address human rights in Myanmar.”

On 21 February, the Myanmar government set 24 political prisoners free,
but there are still more than 2,100 political prisoners behind bars, the
highest number for more than 20 years.

The recent crisis of the Rohingya boat people, Muslims from western
Myanmar who fled persecution, illustrates the regional dimension of human
rights problems. Last month, Amnesty International wrote an open letter to
the governments of Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar and
Thailand after thousands of the minority Rohingyas left Myanmar on boats
sailing for Thailand and Malaysia.  Hundreds went missing, feared drowned,
while the Thai military forcibly expelled approximately 1,000, who had
arrived in southwest Thailand.

In the last year ASEAN governments have shown that they can work together
to solve regional problems.  ASEAN took the lead in forming the Tripartite
Core Group with the UN and the Myanmar government to provide urgent
assistance to the survivors of Cyclone Nargis in May 2008.

“Human rights must be addressed regionally as well as nationally and
internationally - adding a regional tier of protection has proven
invaluable in other regions,” said Donna Guest. “Unless ASEAN seizes the
opportunity to establish a robust mechanism with powers to receive
complaints, investigate, and publicly report on the human rights
situations in all 10 member countries, they will lose credibility.”

For more information please call Amnesty International's press office in
London, UK, on +44 20 7413 5566 or email: press at amnesty.org

International Secretariat, Amnesty International, 1 Easton St., London
WC1X 0DW, UK www.amnesty.org