BurmaNet News, March 3, 2009

[Editor]

March 3, 2009, Issue #3663


INSIDE BURMA
AP: 2 explosions strike in Myanmar's biggest city
Mizzima News: Two activists sentenced to 5 and 8 years
Irrawaddy: CPB urges search for moderates within the Tatmadaw
IMNA: Family list and economic information collected in preparation for
2010 election

ON THE BORDER
Narinjara: Burma-Bangladesh border reopens after three-day closure

BUSINESS / TRADE
Vietnam News Agency: Vietnam, Myanmar have healthy trade potential: official

DRUGS
Irrawaddy: Troops closing in on Shan drug lord
Mizzima News: Five arrested in crack-down on heroin racket

OPINION / OTHER
Bangkok Post: Wean Burma off drugs – Editorial
Irrawaddy: Sanctions are not to blame for Burma’s economic woes – Moe Zaw

STATEMENT
The 88 Generation Students: Statement 1/2009 (88) on the rights of
peasants and farmers



____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

March 3, Associated Press
2 explosions strike in Myanmar's biggest city

Witnesses say two explosions hit Myanmar's largest city, but that no
casualties have been reported.

An official says it was not immediately clear what caused the blasts
Tuesday night, but that there are no casualties. He spoke on condition of
anonymity because he is not authorized to release information.

Witnesses say the first blast took place at about 9:40 p.m. at a small
park in western Yangon near Myeinigone junction, a busy area with a bus
terminal.

They said the second, shortly after 11 p.m., occurred by a bus stop near
another park close to Kamayut junction, another busy thoroughfare.

Terrorism is rare in military-ruled Myanmar, though some small bombs last
year in Yangon injured about a dozen people.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information.
AP's earlier story is below.

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) Witnesses say an explosion has rocked a park in
Myanmar's largest city, but that it caused no casualties.

An official says was not immediately clear what caused the blast Tuesday
night at a small park in western Yangon near Myeinigone junction, a busy
area with a bus terminal. He asked not to be named because he is not
authorized to release information.

Witnesses say the explosion could be heard several blocks away and that
smoke could be seen rising from the site.

Terrorism is rare in military-ruled Myanmar, though some small bombs late
last year in Yangon injured about a dozen people.

____________________________________

March 3, Mizzima News
Two activists sentenced to 5 and 8 years – Solomon

Two members of an underground activist group were given fresh sentences by
the authority on Monday, representatives of the group said.

Two Generation Wave members, Aung Ko Min and Nyein Chan (alias) Khaing Ko
Mon were sentenced up to 5 and 8 years respectively, by the Sanchaung
Township Court in Rangoon Division, They were charged with involvement in
an illegal organization and illegally crossing the country’s borders.

“They were sentenced yesterday without their defense lawyer,” Moe Thway,
one of the members of GW, who is hiding and communicating with the media,
said. “Nyein Chan has one more trial in the Yangon (Rangoon) Divisional
Court,” he added.

Both the accused were arrested on October 10, 2008 by the authority and a
printer and a computer were also seized.

However, officials of the Sanchaung Township Court declined to comment
saying that they had no authority to speak about the issue.

There are 10 GW members, who have been sentenced up to 10 years and
altogether 17 members are being detained, said the group.

The military junta has granted amnesty for 6,313 prisoners, announced on
February 20, after the end of United Nations Human Rights expert Tomas
Ojea Quintana’s six day trip to the country.

However, according to the Thailand-based Assistance Association for
Political Prisoners-Burma (AAPP-B) till today only 30 political prisoners
have been released.

The activists and opposition party in exile criticized the amnesty of the
junta, saying it just meant easing off pressure from the international
community as they did in the past.

“We cannot expect the political situation in Burma, to improve just
because a few political prisoners have been released. This is just a ploy
to try and ease international pressure,” said Tate Naing, general
secretary of AAPP-B in a statement in February.
The UN Human Rights Expert said in an interview to Mizzima, that he had
suggested to the Burmese government to review their judiciary and to make
it independent and impartial for protecting the fundamental rights of the
people.

He also said the human rights situation in Burma had not improved and
release of a few political prisoners was a good sign, but it was not
enough for development.

Recently, the European Union, United States and the UN have called on the
junta for the release of all political prisoners and in Burma there are
more than 2000 political prisoners, still behind bars, according to
AAPP-B.
____________________________________

March 3, Irrawaddy
CPB urges search for moderates within the Tatmadaw – Wai Moe

In a message from its base in China, the Communist Party of Burma has
urged pro-democracy activists to persuade moderates within the Burmese
armed forces to change sides and support the opposition National League
for Democracy.

In an analytical report, the CPB, banned in Burma, hailed the NLD as the
central force of Burma’s democracy movement and welcomed the party’s
long-term plans.

 “We have to organize patriotic soldiers in the current Tatmadaw [the
Burmese armed forces],” the CPB said.

The present situation in the world and in Burma in particular could make
such an undertaking possible, the report said. Moderate forces within the
Tatmadaw had to be organized in times when it wasn’t cracking down on the
democracy movement.

Prodemocracy forces had to seize a “pre-emptive chance,” acting on the
mandate obtained by the NLD in the 1990 election, the CPB said.

The 1988 uprising had not been successful because there had been many
centers of opposition, and that was still the case, the CPB report
maintained.

The CPB said it opposes of the idea of a parallel government. “The CPB
opposes forming a parallel government either in exile or inside Burma,” it
said.

Exiled organizations working for Burmese democracy had no roots in Burma
and survived on “donors,” “proposal politics” and “lobby politics,” the
report said. Because of this reliance, dissident groups were unwilling to
cooperate with the CPB, it complained.

“Surprisingly, we see people inside Burma who are being oppressed by the
junta committed to struggle, while exiled Burmese not under oppression
choose a ‘surrender policy,’” the CPB said. Its use of the term “surrender
policy” is interpreted as a reference to those politicians who support the
current constitution and plan to participate in the 2010 election.

The report predicted that the Burma political progress would proceed
gradually, and it urged pro-democracy groups to look for long-term plans.

____________________________________

March 3, Independent Mon News Agency
Family list and economic information collected in preparation for 2010
election

Authorities are updating family lists and conducting an “economic revenue
inquest” in Three Pagodas Pass Township, near the Thai-Burma border. The
activities are in preparation for the 2010 elections, say local residents
and political analysts.

On March 2nd, the Land Survey Department, Village Peace and Development
Council (VPDC) headmen and the Union Solidarity Development Association
(USDA), held a meeting to discuss the information-gathering project. The
USDA is a government-sponsored civilian group that often carries out
government policies and is best known for aiding the brutal repression of
peaceful protests during September 2007.

During the survey collection, authorities are making inquiries about
residents’ businesses activities. Residents report being asked what kinds
of crops and plantations they cultivate, how many acres they own and what
kind of animals they raise. This has raised eyebrows because it is under
the normal auspices of the Development Affairs Department and Myanmar
Agricultural Service.

The authorities have also been checking family lists, verifying who is
residing in each household and who is away working. “At least three people
came to collect information in our quarter, including the quarter headman
and USDA members,” said a resident whose quarter was recently finished
being surveyed. “They check the family list and ask how many women and men
are on in list and how many people are remaining.” Households with family
members working in Thailand were also queried about the type of work
relatives are doing in Thailand, added the source.

“Their survey is to prepare for the 2010 [election],” a resident told
IMNA. Burma’s military government has scheduled elections for 2010, its
first since annulling elections held in 1990.

A local Mon political analyst agreed, saying that it must be connected to
the coming election because the headmen were collecting exact lists of
eligible voters who are home and who are away.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

March 3, Narinjara
Burma-Bangladesh border reopens after three-day closure – Aung Aung Oo

Bangladesh opened its transit border port to Burma yesterday after it was
closed for three because of a mutiny that erupted in the headquarters of
the border security force in Dhaka last Wednesday.

"The town of Teknaf is so busy with the Burmese and local cross-border
traders as the border transit port is opened," said a resident of the
small southern-Bangladesh border town opposite Burma's Maungdaw.

The border point is being carefully watched by Bangladesh Rifles, the
Bangladesh's border security forces. The deadly rebellion at BDR
headquarters, in which more than 76 people, mostly army officers, were
killed, caused the border to close for three days, according to border
sources.

"I have been stranded for two days in Maungdaw waiting for a pass to come
to Bangladesh," said a Burmese trader who came to Teknaf today.

The Teknaf resident said that the roads and markets looked dry and
deserted over the last three days during the closure of the border and the
tense insurrection in Dhaka.

"The situation is now under control and BDR personnel are working at the
border like before," he added.

Despite a maritime boundary dispute, bilateral trade between Bangladesh
reached more than $140 million during the last fiscal year of 2008.

Hundreds of traders from both sides are crossing the borders every day for
their business. There are two legal transit points in Bangladesh and one
in Burma, and more than a dozen illegal crossing points being used by
business syndicates and smugglers for cross-border trading.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

March 3, Vietnam News Agency
Vietnam, Myanmar have healthy trade potential: official

Vietnam and Myanmar should work hard to realize their potential for trade
and economic cooperation, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen
Thanh Bien told a trade meeting Friday.

Addressing Vietnamese and Myanmar businessmen at the meeting in Hanoi,
Bien said two-way trade has leapt over the last 10 years, surpassing
US$108 million in 2008, an increase of 11 percent from 2007, despite the
ailing global economy.

Vietnam ranks 16th among world exporters to Myanmar and is the 11th
largest buyers of goods from the country. Some of Vietnam’s giant groups,
including PetroVietnam and Viettel, have launched their businesses in the
neighboring nation.

Bien said the economic similarities between the two were an advantage for
trade.

At a meeting of the Vietnam-Myanmar Joint Committee for Trade on the same
day, officials from the two countries discussed ways to facilitate trade
exchange, including simplifying administrative procedures, particularly in
payment, shipping, insurance and other trade services.

Deputy Minister of Trade Aung Tun, head of the Myanmar businessmen
delegation, emphasized the need for regular exchanges of market
information and more trade promotion activities.

____________________________________
DRUGS

March 3, Irrawaddy
Troops closing in on Shan drug lord – Lawi Weng

Thai border troops and police are said to be closing in on Shan fugitive
Naw Kham, an alleged drug lord who is wanted in Thailand, Burma, China and
Laos for drug trafficking.

According to a local Thai language teacher, Naw Kham is thought to be
hiding in Wiang Haeng District in northern Thailand. She said that an
intensive search of Shan community residential areas began last week and
that many local people were afraid of the soldiers.

The hunt for Naw Kham came after the Burmese army seized weapons, 350 kg
of heroin and 217 million baht (US $6 million) in cash, following a clash
with Naw Kham’s private militia in the Tachilek area. The attack appeared
to be in response to an incident on February 18 when it is alleged Naw
Kham’s troops opened fire on a Chinese cargo boat on the Mekong River,
killing one crew member and injuring three.

After Burmese, Chinese and Laotian authorities combined to close in on Naw
Kham, it is believed that he fled to Thailand because he owned a Thai
citizenship card, said the source.

According to Khuensai Jaiyen, the editor of the Shan Herald Agency for
News (SHAN), based in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand, China sent police to
Tachilek Township in eastern Burma last week to apprehend Naw Kham. He
added that the Chinese government also put pressure on the Burmese
government to arrest him and called for Laotian border security guards to
maintain a lookout for the fugitive.

Naw Kham is one of the highest profile drug lords of the Golden Triangle
and reportedly commands a private militia of about 30 to 40 members.

Despite his notoriety in the region, Naw Kham was not on last year’s
wanted list issued by the United States. The 48–year-old Shan was
previously loyal to warlord and drug kingpin, Khun Sa.

In 2006, a tip-off from Chinese and Thai intelligence services led to a
bust at his home in Tachilek and the recovery of a large amount of yaba
(methamphetamines). Naw Kham evaded capture and was rumored to be active
in the Tachilek area until very recently.

Maj-Gen Kyaw Phyoe, the Burmese army’s regional commander in the Golden
Triangle area of Shan State, accused the Shan State Army South (SSA-S) of
assisting Naw Kham, following a meeting in Tachilek on Monday with local
authorities.

However, Sai Sheng Murng, the deputy spokesman of the SSA-S, denied that
the Shan rebels were providing protection for the alleged drug lord.

____________________________________

March 3, Mizzima News
Five arrested in crack-down on heroin racket

The military establishment in Burma has arrested at least five people
since January in connection with an international drug trade.

The arrests came in the wake of raids conducted in Rangoon’s upper class
residential quarters, following the narcotics drug control police seizing
83 blocks of heroin from containers in a ship that was bound for Singapore
on January 25.

Police seized the heroin packets kept inside timber in three containers
owned by Jewellery Luck Company, on a Singaporean-flagged ship 'Kota
Tegap' bound for Singapore from Asia World port in Ahlone Township of the
largest business city.

The port is owned by Tun Myint Naing, son of a former drug kingpin Lo
Hsing Han, who the US treasury Department has blacklisted.

Following the raid in Rangoon port, police continued to carry out searches
in FMI city in Hlaingtharyar township and seized another 320 blocks of
heroin, the source said.

The police had arrested Kyaw Sein, possibly a big boss of the JLC Co. Ltd.
along with his brother-in-law Shwee Ann and company’s exports in-charge
Win Nyunt, and three other Chinese including one woman. They were charged
under the illicit drug control acts.

However, the source said, Kyaw Sein, reportedly a Kokant ethnic was only
detained for a brief period of about a week and was released.

“He was released after he spent about a week in police custody. All
charges against him have been dropped,” the source added.

However, the rest continued to be detained and were interrogated to reveal
the drug racket, in which they are suspected to be involved.

Some of them were detained previously at the Drug Elimination Museum of
Kyundaw Road and Hanthawady Road in Kamayut Township but later moved to an
unknown location.

But another suspected Chinese, known as Mr. Shell, reportedly escaped to
the ethnic Wa controlled territory in Shan state, according to police.

The initial interrogations were conducted by the Special Branch Police and
the central Intelligence Department including a woman in-charge Yi Yi,
said the source, who is also close to Jewellery Luck Company.

Following the interrogations, the accused revealed that the heroin was
brought from Pinlong areas in Shan state in eastern Burma and was
transported by a truck to Rangoon transiting Shan state's capital
Taunggyi.

The heroin was carried in a hidden hollow space under the truck and the
driver was reportedly paid 13 million Kyat, according to preliminary
investigations by the police, the source said.

Win Nyunt supplied timber planks in Rangoon’s upscale residential areas
and the suspected Chinese men packed the heroin blocks with mica sheets,
newspapers and polyethylene plastics, the investigation reveals.

It is estimated that the sized drug would be worth US dollar 100 million.

The source said, the Burmese police were tip-off by an international drug
agency that heroin was being kept in wooden planks and were being exported
to Taiwan along with the names of suspected distributors, the name of the
ship and the scheduled date of the ship’s departure from the port in
Rangoon.

Following the tip-off, the Burmese Navy ordered the suspected ship to stop
and ordered it to turn back to the Asia World terminal port.

In total 180 kilograms of heroin was seized.

However, the source said, there are doubts behind the release of Kyaw Sein
because during the interrogation, Jewellery Luck Company’s General Manager
(GM) Taung Htaik Min was seen closely associating with military leaders.

 "He [Taung Htaik Min] was seen at the wedding ceremony of the Burmese
Prime Minister Lt Gen Thein Sein's daughter," the source said.

Sources in Naypyitaw said, several businessmen close to the junta had
given gifts to Thein Sein's daughter Yin Thuzar and her husband Captain
Han Win Aung at the ceremony held in a government guest house in Naypyitaw
in late January.

Moreover, during the Chinese New Year, on 26 February, Kyaw Sein
reportedly presented 14 high-ranking Burmese military officers with
watches worth 10 million Kyats each as New Year gifts, sources added.

The Jewellery Luck Company Limited was set up in 1999 and is into Hotels,
Karaoke lounges, Massage parlours and Disco Clubs in Rangoon. After 2004,
Jewellery Luck began an export and import business of timber and other
hard woods.

Aik Hawk a.k.a Hsiao Haw, an ethnic Wa businessman and son-in-law of Bao
Youxiang, Chairman of the United Wa State Army is also a co-founder of
Jewellery Luck Company and he left the company in late 2004, an insider
said.

Jewellery Luck Company has its head office at the Olympic Hotel, which is
also believed to be owned by Kyaw Sein, in downtown Rangoon.

The company is also known to pay its staff high salary at about 5 to 10
million kyat per month for a General Manager, and maintains a sound
relationship with the military generals, the source added.

(Salai Pi Pi added the additional information)

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

March 3, Bangkok Post
Wean Burma off drugs – Editorial

Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya must take up the invitation by Burmese
counterpart Nyan Win for an official visit before the end of the month.
The new government, Mr Kasit in particular, should engage the military
regime in straight talk. Now, more than ever, Burma is dragging heavily on
bilateral relations, progress by Asean and - especially - the efforts to
combat major drug trafficking rings.

For the first time in a decade, the Thai government has a greater stake in
promoting human rights, democracy and rule of law in Burma than in doing
business with the military rulers.

While Asean was holding its summit last weekend, the US State Department
issued its annual no-nonsense report on drug trafficking worldwide. This
two-volume report has become a standard for anyone with even a cursory
interest in the subject. It is objective enough that the US lists itself
(and Thailand) as countries that help international criminals by helping
money laundering. So this report deserves to be taken seriously when it
says that Burma is not just one of the top three drug trafficking nations,
but that its government has failed miserably to try to adhere to
international obligations to stop it.

Many countries have serious problems with international crime, but most
governments try to stem and stop the problem. There has long been a
serious question whether Burma takes its international responsibility at
all seriously. The military regime has made dozens of economic deals with
big-time drug traffickers, including Lo Hsien-Han and the late Khun Sa,
both of whom were on the most-wanted list of criminals in Thailand and the
United States. According to the US report, the Burmese government "does
not consistently enforce" the drug laws against the world's biggest
methamphetamine gang, the United Wa State Army. It notes correctly that
the yaa baa trade has had a devastating impact on tens of thousands of
Thais.

The Burmese foreign minister reportedly told Mr Kasit at the weekend that
Burmese troops and police have simply been unable to find any bases that
produce methamphetamines. Mr Kasit's reply, if any, is not known.
According to every available report, however, the trade in methamphetamine
pills increased last year. The more than 14 million pills seized by
security officials last year came from somewhere, and everyone in Thailand
believes they originated in Burma.

Mr Nyan Win moved to higher ground when he discussed opium with Mr Kasit.
The Burmese minister said Burma was taking regular steps to reduce the
opium crop. This is partly true, but the problem is what a terrible job it
is doing. The heroin trade from Burma continues to grow, and the recent
evidence is that the military authorities have slowed the campaigns to
help farmers move away from opium into more competitive crops. Just a
month ago, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime called Burma the
world's second greatest producer of opium for heroin, with 28,500 hectares
(178,125 rai) under poppy cultivation. The UN report made a point of
noting: "Opium farmers are poorer than the non-opium farmers", with lower
food security.

This was first noted more than 40 years ago by His Majesty the King. The
drug trade, far from making farmers prosperous, impoverishes them and
enslaves them in the service of the drug gangs, who are the only customers
for the crops. These are the greatest reasons for the success of
agricultural replacement programmes in northern Thailand and around the
world.

____________________________________

March 3, Irrawaddy
Sanctions are not to blame for Burma’s economic woes – Moe Zaw

Recently, some critics of the National League for Democracy (NLD) have
taken the party’s leadership to task for continuing to call for sanctions
on Burma.

It is not enough to blame sanctions for the prolonged poverty in Burma
while urging the NLD to confess policy mistakes. We need to identify and
implement a workable strategy that exploits the junta’s weaknesses—not
just place blame and point fingers.

Isolation has been the policy of Burma’s military ever since it stole
power from the country’s civilian government in 1962. The current junta,
the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), has proved intransigent
and has refused to concede any aspect of its policy as a result of
sanctions or engagement. Champions of both policies realize this.

The underlying question is this: What will influence the junta to
peacefully solve the current crises facing Burma? If sanctions, targeted
or total, could be made to work more effectively, policymakers who
advocate this approach would be applauded.
Similarly, pro-engagement policymakers would be praised if their strategy
actually succeeded in changing the regime.

On October 4, 2007, under extreme pressure from the international
community following its brutal crackdown on the peaceful monk-led Saffron
Revolution, the SPDC issued Statement 1/2007. This statement called on NLD
General-Secretary Daw Aung San Suu Kyi to renounce “confrontation, utter
devastation, and demanding all types of sanctions, including economic
sanctions,” as a precondition for meeting with junta leader Snr-Gen Than
Shwe.

The word “confrontation” entered Burma’s political lexicon in 1989, when
the junta accused the NLD and Aung San Suu Kyi of confrontational
activities during her organizational trips across Burma. For the junta,
any activity that threatens their hold on power is an act of
confrontation.

Aung San Suu Kyi introduced the phrase “utter devastation” during a press
conference in Burma on July 11, 1995, the day after she was released from
her first period of house arrest. “We must choose between dialogue and
utter devastation,” she said at the time.

The junta’s call for the elimination of “all types of sanctions, including
economic sanctions,” has a long history. However, the sanctions debate is
not about the impact of the sanctions on political change in Burma or the
international community’s options for imposing pressure on the Burmese
junta. Instead, the debate is about whether sanctions negatively impact
the people of Burma. Sanctions should not be used as a scapegoat for the
economic problems in Burma. The cause of the crisis in Burma is the junta,
not the sanctions.

For years, international ministers and diplomats have discussed policy
toward Burma and the junta’s disregard of international and public
opinion.

Recently, at a news conference in Indonesia on February 18, 2009, Hillary
Clinton, the new US Secretary of State, stated that her government was
“looking at possible ideas” to try to promote positive change in Burma.
“Clearly 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,” she said.

In an interview in 2003, former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad,
who was the primary person responsible for admitting Burma into the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) during the 1997 Asean
Summit in Kuala Lumpur, warned that Burma might be expelled from the
regional grouping if its military rulers continued to defy world pressure
to release Aung San Suu Kyi. “I fought hard for Myanmar [Burma] to be
admitted into Asean. I think the leaders of Myanmar should consider public
opinion,” he said.

When the UN Special Envoy Ibrahim Gambari visited Burma recently, the
SPDC’s Prime Minister Gen Thein Sein told him that “the UN should make an
effort to lift economic sanctions imposed on Myanmar, if the organization
wants to see a prosperous Myanmar with political stability.”

Thein Sein seemed to suggest that lifting economic sanctions would
guarantee Burma’s future prosperity and political stability. Obviously,
that would not happen. The special envoy reported to the Security Council
after his recent visit that he had achieved “no tangible results” in his
efforts to move Burma closer to democracy.

As Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s founding prime minister, explained during an
interview with a columnist from the University of California’s Los Angeles
Media Center, “These are rather dumb generals when it comes to the
economy. How can they so mismanage the economy and reach this stage when
the country has so many natural resources?”
Lee also asserted that he could not understand how the generals could
expect Burma to remain so isolated, adding that even medicine had to be
smuggled into the country from Thailand.

The junta manipulates the international community, and the SPDC’s contempt
for international opinion is obvious. Neither a confession from the NLD
nor blaming sanctions will result in tangible outcomes for democracy in
Burma. Therefore, instead of focusing on confession and blame games, we
must identify the most effective ways, both internationally and within
Burma, to penetrate the junta’s impervious shield.

The author is a former political prisoner and currently member of the
foreign affairs section of the National League for Democracy (Liberated
Area).

____________________________________
STATEMENT

March 3, The 88 Generation Students
Statement 1/2009 (88) on the rights of peasants and farmers

SPDC’s policies of oppression force farmers off their inherited farmlands
and turn landowning, self-sufficient farmers into landless labourers and
illegal migrants.

1. Today, March2nd, marks the day that the military council of Gen Ne Win
unjustly seized power and enslaved the people of Burma in 1962.

2. Gen Ne Win proclaimed March 2nd as “Peasants’ Day”. The Burma Socialist
Programme Party (BSPP) even included this date in the school text books as
a historical landmark for the development of the peasants of Burma.

3. Two years after the coup d’etat, on March 20th, 1964 BSPP promulgated
the law which in the name of national unity abolished all political
parties, unions and associations, including the “All Burma Peasants’
Union” (Ba Ta La Sa). The right of the peasants and farmers of Burma to
assemble, organize, demonstrate for their rights and security was
summarily terminated.

4. The BSPP then set up its own “Peasants’ Association” to prop up its’
authoritarianism and reinforce its’ mechanisms of systematic oppression.

5. Today, under the military rule of the SLORC/SPDC regime, the peasants
and farmers continue to be oppressed and without any protection or
security.

6a. The SPDC regime and the business companies owned by their relatives
have confiscated the farm lands of the peasants. Where compensation has
been paid, it is always less than the current market land price. Any
farmer who has dared to make a complaint has been imprisoned.

6b. The regime and their business cronies have created contract farming
without proportionate returns for the farmers. The farmers are made to
grow planned crops, in particular castor oil plants regardless of the
desire and wisdom of the farmers. Regulations are imposed on all farming
processes, including milling, storing and selling. The regime does not
provide any subsidies for pesticides, fertilizers, updating of technology
or irrigation systems. In order to access loans, farmers have to pay
bribes, even then the loans are not sufficient to support the farmers’
needs. Those who do not want to take part in this system of farming are
forced off their land.

6c. The regime has neglected to respond to the slump in prices for
agricultural produce which directly impacts on the livelihoods of the
farmers.

6d. In some areas, the regime continues to use forced labour to work the
land. These policies of oppression have forced farmers off their inherited
farmlands and turned landowning, self-sufficient farmers into landless
labourers. In order to have a livelihood, many have migrated to
neighbouring countries, crossing the borders illegally and living under
great duress.

The current situation is intolerable , 70% of the total population of
Burma are farmers living under this unacceptable oppression. We cannot
ignore the plight of our farmers and peasants and we must not remain
silent. We, the 88 Generation Students, strongly denounce the military
government’s violations of the rights and denial of livelihood of the
farmers and peasants.

The SPDC must restore the right of the peasants and farmers to organize
and form associations to protect their own rights and livelihood.

The peasants and farmers must organize and form associations to struggle
for their rights.

We, The 88 Generation Students, are committed to wholeheartedly supporting
this struggle and we call on the support of the whole population.

The 88 Generation Students
To contact
Email: 88gstudent at gmail.com