BurmaNet News, March 10, 2009

[Editor]

March 10, 2009, Issue #3668


INSIDE BURMA
AFP: UN refugee chief visits Myanmar
Irrawaddy: Electricity shortages, students and unrest
DVB: Two NLD members in unspecified arrest

ON THE BORDER
SHAN: Over 2 million workers anticipated to be laid off in Thailand

BUSINESS / TRADE
Bloomberg (US): China may start receiving Myanmar gas through pipeline in
2013

REGIONAL
Thai Press Reports: Thai Foreign Minister to discuss Rohingya issue with
Myanmar

INTERNATIONAL
Insurance Times (UK): QBE pulls out of Burma

OPINION / OTHER
Time: Visiting the Rohingya, Burma's hidden population
The Nation (Thailand): How far will the govt really go to protect migrant
workers? – Kavi Chongkittavorn
South China Morning Post: No home, little hope – Greg Torode
Korea Times: What fails Asean? – Nehginpao Kipgen



____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

March 10, Agence France Presse
UN refugee chief visits Myanmar

The United Nations' refugee chief toured Myanmar's border with Bangladesh
Tuesday as he followed the route of migrants who say they are fleeing the
country for fear of persecution by authorities.

The High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, arrived in the
junta-led nation on Saturday.

On Tuesday he visited Rakhine state where most of the Rohingya migrants
reside, a Myanmar official said.

On Wednesday he will travel back to the main city Yangon before flying to
the south of the country where the migrants illegally board boats bound
for neighbouring countries, the official added.

"He went to Sittwe in Rakhine state this afternoon.... He will meet with
UN staff," said the official, who declined to be named, adding that
Guterres had already met with Myanmar's immigration and foreign ministers.

The UN refugee agency has expressed concern over the fate of hundreds of
Muslim migrants who were rescued in Indian and Indonesian waters in recent
months claiming to have fled Myanmar and to have later been abused by Thai
authorities.

Guterres held a one-hour meeting with Thai foreign minister Kasit Piromya
on the migrant issue last weekend before travelling to Myanmar.

Kasit told Guterres that a common approach to illegal immigration would be
agreed at a regional meeting of Southeast Asian ministers in April.

Photographs apparently showing the Thai army towing migrants in boats out
to sea and lining Rohingya men up on a beach have been published in the
international media this year.

Rohingya rescued at sea said they had fled Myanmar for Thailand but were
rounded up and taken out to open waters with limited supplies.

Thailand has denied the accusations, while insisting the problem of
illegal migration to its shores must be dealt with regionally.
____________________________________

March 10, Irrawaddy
Electricity shortages, students and unrest – Wai Moe

Earlier this week, the head of Burma’s military junta, Snr-Gen Than Shwe,
celebrated the consecration of a new Buddhist pagoda in his administrative
capital of Naypyidaw. Although he clearly intended to send the message
that his iron-fisted influence over the country is here to stay, recent
small protests by students serve as a reminder that challenges to his rule
remain.

On the evening of March 6, high school students on about 50 motorcycles
held a small protest in Moulmein, the third-largest city in Burma, ahead
of university entrance examinations on March 11.

The high school students didn’t shout slogans about politics or democracy;
they just demanded better access to electricity for citizens. The protest
spread to Twante, a town near Rangoon.

Burma has one of the world’s worst systems of energy distribution. Outside
of Naypyidaw, most of the country is in the dark more often than not. Even
residents of Rangoon, the country’s main commercial center, receive only
meager rations of electricity; 24-hour access hasn’t been seen for more
than a decade.

“Although Rangoon is a dark city at night, every corner of Naypyidaw has
light,” said a government staffer in the new capital.

High-ranking generals and the state-run media often claim that the regime
is making great strides in providing the country with a reliable supply of
electricity. Senior members of the junta are routinely shown inspecting
new hydropower projects.

According to the CIA’s World Factbook, Burma’s electricity production in
2006 was 5.961 million kWh, while consumption was just 4.289 million kWh.

However, in reality, ordinary Burmese don’t receive an adequate
electricity supply from Than Shwe’s administration. Analysts say the
military junta keeps much of the country’s energy supply in reserve for
military purposes and emergency situations.

In response to the protest in Moulmein, local authorities provided
electricity for all areas of the city on March 7.

“It was really unusual in Moulmein. We did not see electricity across the
city for many years,” a resident said.

But this near-miraculous event was short-lived. The situation has since
returned to “normal,” and people remain as energy-starved as ever.

“Now, as usual, there is no electricity,” said journalist in Moulmein,
adding that the authorities have tightened security in the city, checking
people as well as motorcycles.

Since the regime crushed monk-led mass demonstrations in September 2007,
dissidents have continued to organize small political defiance groups in
Rangoon and other cities.

In February, at least two students at the Rangoon University of Economics
lit candles in daytime to protest the lack of electricity. Fortunately,
the students managed to escape arrest.

Since early this year, dissident groups such as the All Burma Federation
of Students’ Unions and Generation Wave have launched pamphlet and poster
campaigns in Rangoon.

In reaction, the Burmese authorities alerted member of the Union
Solidarity and Development Association, the junta’s mass organization, to
watch for and deter such political defiance movements. Taxi divers in
Rangoon say that they’ve been offered rewards of 50,000 kyat (US $50) for
information about dissidents who distribute pamphlets and put posters on
wall.

In mid-February, university teachers and staffers were told by the
authorities to sign an agreement stating that they would stay away from
any anti-government movement after an activist was arrested with
anti-government papers at a dorm in the city.

Apart from these small but extremely risky acts of political defiance, two
bomb blasts hit Rangoon last week in different locations. The explosions
were the first to hit Rangoon so far this year. Officials said in the
state-run media that the cause of blasts was still under investigation.

As a measure to counter such threats, the regime has reportedly started
training workers in public areas how to spot bombs.

“Security guards and cleaning staff at Shwedagon have started receiving
special training after there were rumors of a bomb at the pagoda,” a
journalist in Rangoon told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday.

March is a month of resistance activities in Burma. March 13 is the 21st
anniversary of the start of the pro-democracy movement in the country. On
March 13, 1988, technology students Phone Maw and Soe Naing were killed in
clashes with police, leading to anti-regime demonstrations in Rangoon.

The March demonstrations sparked the 1988 uprising, which successfully
removed Ne Win, the dictator who ruled Burma from 1962 to 1988, from
power.

To mark the March 13 anniversary, a campaign group in exile, Free Burma’s
Political Prisoners Now! , is scheduled to launch an action to collect
888,888 signatures by May 24, the day that pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu
Kyi should be released from her current term of house arrest under Burmese
law. Over a hundred groups around the world will join the campaign, the
group said on its Web site.

“The petition calls on UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to make it his
personal priority to secure the release of all political prisoners in
Burma, as the essential first step towards democracy in the country,” the
group said.

____________________________________

March 10, Democratic Voice of Burma
Two NLD members in unspecified arrest – Nan Kham Kaew

Two more Rangoon NLD members have been arrested, the party's news and
information committee said.

Sein Hlaing of Sanchaung township was arrested on 6 March, and Shwe Gyoe
from Hlaing township on the 7 March.

It is still not known exactly why they were arrested and where they were
taken to, party spokesman Nyan Win said.

"Shwe Gyoe is the father-in-law of someone who was arrested last year and
who died in detention from torture,” he said.

Three of the nine NLD members arrested last year for a protest demanding
the release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi remain imprisoned at Insein jail. The
other six were released in January.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

March 10, Shan Herald Agency for News
Over 2 million workers anticipated to be laid off in Thailand – Hseng Khio
Fah

According to the Social Security of Thailand, over 2 million workers would
be laid off in 2009; most of them migrant workers, said Wilaiwan Sae Tia,
Chairwoman of the Thai Labor Solidarity Committee, when she was invited to
the 8th Annual Women’s Exchange Get-Together which was held at an
undisclosed location on the Wilaiwan Sae Tia

Among those workers to be laid off would be workers from electronics, shoe
and furniture factories, transportation, and tourism including graduated
people.

Most of them would be migrant workers because they don’t have work
permits, she said. “Currently, more migrant workers have been laid off
than Thai workers.”

Last week, there were over 40 migrant workers from Chiangmai returning to
their homeland due to lack of work, difficulty to survive and fear of
police arrest.

Many migrant factory workers from Burma are feeling the effects of
Thailand’s economic slowdown, Independent Mon News Agency (IMNA) reported
yesterday.

In 2008, 93,275 workers had been laid off and this early year, 66, 776
more had been laid off.

However, Thai labor could be impacted as well if Thailand’s economy gets
worse because some business owners could move their factories or their
businesses to border towns like Maesod and Maesai in order to get cheap
labor, she added.

“Most business owners don’t want to hire Thai labor because they are
entitled to ask compensation under the law. They will only hire migrant
labor so they don’t’ need to pay compensation.”

There are at least 2 million legal and illegal migrant workers in
Thailand. But there is no law to protect those migrant workers.

In May, 2008, the Thai Labor Solidarity Committee sent a letter to the
Thai government to pass a law for all migrants to have equal rights, to be
safe in workplace and to allow them freedom of assembly.

Debbie Stothard from Altsean (Alternative Asean) also commented that if
Thailand’s economy is to recover, they will need workers immediately,
especially cheap labor.

“If the Thai government deports all migrant workers back to Burma, they
may try to go to other countries because they have to survive,” said
Jackie Pollock, Coordinator of the Migrant Assistance Program (MAP)
“Deportation will only make it difficult for Thailand to get workers.”

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

March 10, Bloomberg (US)
China may start receiving Myanmar gas through pipeline in 2013 – Shinhye Kang

China, the world’s second-biggest energy consumer, may start receiving
natural gas from Myanmar’s Shwe project through a cross-border pipeline in
April 2013.

China will import 400 million cubic feet of gas a day from Myanmar’s
offshore fields, U Aung Htoo, director of planning at state-run Myanmar
Oil and Gas Enterprise, said in an interview in Seoul today.

A group led by Daewoo International Corp. signed an agreement in December
to sell gas from Myanmar to China National Petroleum Corp. The group --
which includes Myanmar Oil & Gas Enterprise, India’s Oil & Natural Gas
Corp., GAIL India (Ltd.) and Korea Gas Corp. -- will supply the fuel to
China’s biggest oil company for 30 years.

China and Myanmar are still in talks on how the gas link is to be built
and how construction costs may be split, Aung Htoo said. China shares with
Myanmar a mountainous land border of 2,185 kilometers (1,355 miles).

Gas will account for 8 percent of China’s overall energy consumption by
2015 compared with 3.3 percent in 2007, Cui Yingkai, a director at
PetroChina Co.’s gas and pipeline unit, said on Nov. 27.

Prices will be negotiated with China on a quarterly basis to reflect
global market conditions, Daewoo International said in December. The Shwe,
Shwe-Phyu, and Mya areas in the A-1 and A-3 blocks are estimated to hold
between 4.5 trillion and 7.7 trillion cubic feet of gas in total,
according to the Seoul- based company.

Daewoo International has a 51 percent stake in the fields while Myanmar
Oil and Gas Enterprise has a 15 percent share. Oil & National Gas owns 17
percent, GAIL India 8.5 percent and Korea Gas 8.5 percent.

Zawtika Project

Commercial output at M-9 gas block in Myanmar will begin in 2015 or
earlier, Aung Htoo said. The project in Zawtika field is developed by PTT
Exploration & Production Pcl, Thailand’s only publicly traded oil and gas
explorer, and Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise, he said. As much as 250
million cubic feet of gas will be exported to Thailand, Aung Htoo said.

PTT Exploration will postpone output at the M-9 block to 2013 from 2012,
Krungthep Turakij newspaper reported last month. The block is estimated to
have at least 1.5 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves, which can be
supplied over 20 years. Thailand, which buys about 30 percent of its gas
from neighboring Myanmar, uses gas to generate about two-thirds of its
electricity.

Proven gas reserves in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, jumped 39 times
to 21.19 trillion cubic feet at the end of 2007, equivalent to almost a
quarter of Australia’s proven reserves, according to the BP Statistical
Review.

Myanmar’s daily gas production will almost double to 2.235 billion cubic
feet by 2015 from 1.215 billion cubic feet currently, Aung Htoo said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Shinhye Kang in Seoul at
skang24 at bloomberg.net.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

March 10, Thai Press Reports
Thai Foreign Minister to discuss Rohingya issue with Myanmar

Foreign Affairs Minister Kasit Piromya affirms Thailand will cooperate
with Myanmar in returning illegal Rohingya migrants back to their home
country without punishing them. The Thai government is preparing to
systematize the legal import of Myanmar laborers.

The minister said he was scheduled to visit Myanmar on March 23rd to hold
talks with the Burmese government about the Thai-Myanmar relations in
terms of problems along the border, alien laborers, and measures to import
legal Myanmar laborers.

During his provincial tour in Ranong province yesterday, Mr. Kasit met
with 120 illegal alien laborers there. They consisted of Rohingya,
Burmese, Lao, and Cambodian people. Most of the illegal Rohingya migrants
told the minister that they were afraid that they would be punished if
they were sent back to Myanmar. Mr Kasit assured them that they would not
be maltreated and Thailand and Myanmar had reached an agreement on their
issue during the last ASEAN Summit in Thailand.

The minister expressed his confidence that his trip to Myanmar would lead
to collaboration in setting up a laborer import system for alien laborers
in a bid to help prevent human trafficking.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

March 10, Insurance Times (UK)
QBE pulls out of Burma

QBE Insurance has cancelled insurance it provided to Burma and is to cease
providing insurance to companies operating in the country, according to
the Burma Campaign UK’s Insurance Campaign.

In a statement to the Burma Campaign UK, Frank O’Halloran, QBE’s chief
executive, said: "QBE has always had a policy that the company does not
fund the current ruling party in Burma. To provide further certainty that
the policy is being adhered to, QBE has reviewed its various portfolios
around the world and has cancelled the few incidental Burmese exposures on
multinational insurance policies which could have a direct or indirect
benefit for the current ruling party in Burma.

QBE does not have an office, an agent or any employees in Burma and does
not provide insurance for any business owned in Burma."

Johnny Chatterton, campaigns officer at the Burma Campaign UK, said:
“Foreign insurers provide a financial lifeline to Burma’s brutal regime.
They insure the projects that make the regime billions of dollars a year.
These billions don’t help the people of Burma, they entrench military rule
and fund campaigns of ethnic cleansing in Eastern Burma.

“QBE’s welcome decision shames insurers like Catlin and Atrium that
continue to help fund the Burmese regime.”

The role of QBE in the Burmese insurance market was highlighted in the
Burma Campaign UK report, “Insuring Repression” published in July 2008.

QBE was added to the “Insurance Dirty List” after an investigation by The
Burma Campaign UK discovered company documents detailing two correspondent
offices in Burma.

Insurers that have already stopped writing business in burma include AIG,
Allianz, Aon, Aviva, Axa, ING, Munich Re, SCOR, Swiss Re and Willis.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

March 10, Time
Visiting the Rohingya, Burma's hidden population

'Sorry,' I was told, 'but there are no Rohingya here.' I was mystified.

>From everything that I had heard about this persecuted Muslim minority,

the Rohingya come from western Burma's isolated Arakan State. Hundreds of
thousands of Rohingya, who speak a dialect similar to that of Bengalis
from neighboring Bangladesh, have fled the brutality of Burma's military
regime by escaping their Buddhist-majority homeland for lives as illegal
immigrants. The ruling junta has denied the Rohingya some of the most
basic human rights — no citizenship, no freedom of movement, no marriage
without permission. In January, their plight made headlines when Thai
forces reportedly towed hundreds of Rohingya boatpeople who made it to
Thai territorial waters back out to sea in leaky vessels with little food
or water. Some are now missing and presumed dead. The Rohingyas' situation
is so acute that they were a major topic of discussion at last week's
summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

But now that I'd made the long trip to Arakan, there was a strange lack of
information on the Rohingya. Many locals denied their very existence. (The
Burmese government, in a curious feat of logic, denies having mistreated
the Rohingya, since there is, according to Foreign Minister Nyan Win, no
such a minority group in Burma.) Then, a break: a Buddhist Arakan local
confided that there were some ethnic Bengalis who lived in a nearby
village. He guessed that they'd come from Bangladesh to Burma 10 or 20
years ago and were living in Arakan illegally. Would I like to meet them?
Yes, I would. (Read about Burma's different ethnic minorities.)

The village, with the unfortunate name of Nazi, was dusty and poor.
Burmese villages, generally, are dusty and poor, but this place felt more
downtrodden than most. The sour smell of anxiety pervaded the air.
Eventually, O Lam Myit, the 75-year-old village patriarch, shuffled up,
his eyes milky, his longyi (or sarong) frayed, a ragged prayer cap on his
head. Like his father and grandfather, he was born in Arakan state. O Lam
Myit laughed when I told him that many Burmese thought this village was
populated only by recent economic migrants from Bangladesh. In 1978, he
was returning from a visit to his home village in the northern part of the
state when Burmese immigration officers stopped him at the ferry jetty and
told him there was a mistake on his national registration card. He was to
turn it in and receive a new one soon. That was three decades ago; the new
proof of citizenship never arrived. Since then, O Lam Myit, like everyone
else in his village, has not been able to travel without applying for an
exorbitantly priced permit.

The villagers of Nazi spoke of a regime that conscripted them as forced
labor and made them pay prohibitive taxes or buy expensive business
licenses that robbed them of any chance at economic mobility. Because they
are not considered citizens of Burma, they cannot work in the public
sector as teachers or soldiers or doctors. Nor can they attend university
in Arakan's capital, Sittwe, where communal violence between Buddhists and
Muslims flared eight years ago. The villagers' tone when describing their
plight was matter-of-fact, as if they were complaining of a rainstorm or a
bad case of influenza. To marry, some Rohingya must sign a document
promising not to bear more than two children — a regulation that
presumably ensures the number of Muslim inhabitants of Arakan doesn't
mushroom faster than the Buddhist population. Burmese prejudice against
the Rohingya is as casual as it is cruel. When international indignation
over the junta's treatment of the Muslim minority erupted earlier this
year, Burma's consul general to Hong Kong issued a letter saying that the
Rohingya could not possibly be Burmese since they were "dark brown" and
"ugly as ogres."

Toward the end of my visit to Nazi, I sat in the privacy of a
bamboo-floored stilted house, where locals felt more comfortable talking.
I asked the villagers if they considered themselves Rohingya. The room
full of around 20 people erupted into argument. I couldn't understand what
they were saying, but it was clear that there was significant
disagreement. Finally, one man spoke. "Some people call us Rohingya," he
said cautiously. I realized they were afraid to be identified as Rohingya
because the very word carried with it the likelihood of so much
discrimination. The man's name was Muhammad — he gave me his Bengali name,
not the Burmese one that Rohingya are also required to have — and he left
Burma two years ago on a crowded wooden boat filled with wannabe migrants.
Eventually, the vessel drifted to India's Andaman Islands, from which he
and others were repatriated. Would he try his luck abroad again, I asked?
The news of the recent boatpeople's experiences in Thailand had reached
Arakan. He nodded, bouncing a child on his lap. Then, village elder O Lam
Myit spoke. "I am old, so I cannot go," he said. "But for the young, it's
worth risking death to go abroad. What's the point of staying here, in a
place where we can do nothing?"

____________________________________

March 10, The Nation (Thailand)
How far will the govt really go to protect migrant workers? – Kavi
Chongkittavorn

"I have to apologise for meeting all of you in this condition," said
Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya. His audience was a group of 22 out of 78
Rohingya people currently detained at the Immigration centre in this
coastal town on the Andaman Sea.

It was the unexpected arrival of the stateless Rohingya boat people from
Burma in January that put Thailand's smallest province, with just 180,787
people, on the world map. This was followed by international condemnation
of Thailand and its alleged inhumane treatment of the illegal immigrants,
who were earlier turned back to sea by the Thai Navy.

"I am here to help you. We want to see all of you return home to
contribute to your country," Kasit went on to say. "We will get all the
help we can bilaterally, regionally and internationally," he emphasised,
adding that the UN High Commissioner for Refugees had the resources to
deal with the repatriation.

After the minister's short introduction, several of the Rohingya spoke
through an interpreter using the Bengali language. They told Kasit
familiar tales of abuse and even torture and the treacherous journey that
took them to Thailand. Each of them had a version of the horrifying
stories. This group of Rohingyas arrived here two months ago. Their wounds
have healed and only three are still recuperating at the Ranong Hospital.

When Kasit asked them what they would like to do if they were able to
return home in the future, all of them were flabbergasted and their faces
were full of bewilderment. Almost all said they did not want to return to
Burma. Only five said that they were Bangladeshi and wanted to return to
the country they belonged to.

After an hour at the detention centre, Kasit was whisked away to the
Ranong Customs Pier to witness the repatriation of 30 Burmese illegal
migrants back to Burma's Koh Song, the nearest border town, only a
15-minute ride away by longtail boat. The Ranong Immigration authorities
probably wanted to impress the minister with this less publicised and
non-controversial push-back.

Before they left Ranong in the longtail boat, Kasit told the migrants:
"Remember my face. I will return to visit you and your families to make
sure you are doing well. We are not running from each other. We will work
together with your government and Asean to improve your lives." A
plainclothes army colonel interpreted the foreign minister's pledge into
Burmese, adding, "He is the foreign minister, the man you saw on TV."

As the boat left the pier, the Burmese workers waved their hands, some
with smiling faces beaming with hope.

Illegal migrant workers and boat people, both Burmese and Rohingya, will
be top of the agenda when Kasit makes a scheduled visit to Rangoon on
March 23. He said this will be a familiarisation trip, but he would like
to discuss these two issues.

"The Burmese government has shown goodwill during the Asean Summit. We
want to work together with them. The government there has to help us and
Asean," he said

Both at the detention centre and the pier, Kasit told reporters that the
Abhisit-led government has no vested interests or hidden agenda in its
policies on Burma.

"Thailand wants to set things straight, no hanky-panky," he said with a
broad smile. He hopes that Thailand and Asean's comfort level with Burma
will increase over time and that mutual trust will grow.

As a member of the Asean family, he said, the Burmese leaders know what
they must do to increase confidence among the rest of the family. At the
Cha-am/Hua Hin summit, Burma extended the mandate of the Asean
Humanitarian Task Force and the Tripartite Core Group for another year
until July 2009. Asean welcomed the move. That much was clear.

Kasit said that Thailand is currently reviewing its policy on Burma, as
were many other countries.

After years of Burmese policy being tampered with by groups with vested
political and business interests, Thailand wants to take a comprehensive
approach to bilateral issues, particularly illegal Burmese migrant
workers, about 3 million of whom reside in various parts of Thailand. At
the moment, at least 20,000 Rohingyas are working inside Thailand,
including at the venue of the Asean Summit in Hua Hin.

Kasit said the government recognised the important role played by these
workers and that ways must be found to give them decent lives.

"They should be given proper registration, proper healthcare and social
welfare. They are contributing to local economies," Kasit told 1,500
district heads and villagers from various districts in Ranong, which
itself hosts a huge number of Burmese workers.

So far the registration of migrant workers has not been done professionally.

"The vital data on these people is still missing," Kasit pointed out.

Some of the village heads, however, have strong views and want the
government to take strong measures to push all illegal workers back to
Burma.

Kasit had to calm some village heads who lost their cool. At the
provincial level, however, senior officials said Ranong needs the workers
in factories and fishing fleets.

There are around 80,000 registered Burmese workers in Ranong - making
almost one in three of the people here Burmese. Nobody can tell how many
unregistered workers are inside the province, but just visit any shop
here, and one will see one or two Burmese workers inside. Just to
demonstrate that migrant workers do have money to spend, all gold shops
have Burmese price tags, and one shop had a sign saying "Only cash please"
in Burmese.

Concerning political developments inside Burma, Kasit said that Asean
would like to see a more inclusive national reconciliation process to
strengthen unity, including the release of political detainees and the
inclusion of all political parties in the political process.

His call coincided with the upcoming campaign to obtain 888,888 signatures
for the release of all political prisoners in Burma, including opposition
leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

According to Free Burma's Political Prisoners Now, there are over 2,100
political prisoners still detained in Burma's jails.

____________________________________

March 10, South China Morning Post
No home, little hope – Greg Torode

Myanmar's consul general in Hong Kong, Ye Myint Aung, sparked outrage when
he wrote to his diplomatic peers last month to describe the Rohingya
boatpeople as "ugly as ogres". Yet, as undiplomatic as his remarks may
have been, Ye Myint Aung highlighted just how difficult the problem of the
stateless Muslim tribe will be to solve, and showed the depth of official
antagonism they face in Myanmar.

Thousands of Rohingya have fled their homes in Myanmar's northern Rakhine
state in recent months to risk crossing the Bay of Bengal and then the
Andaman Sea in rickety boats in the hope of reaching Thailand, Malaysia or
Indonesia. It is an annual migration that takes advantage of winter calms,
and appears to grow every year.

A recent series of reports in the South China Morning Post has shown just
how dangerous that crossing has become. We revealed a new Thai army policy
of detaining Rohingya in camps on isolated islands before towing them out
to sea in powerless boats and abandoning them. At least 1,190 were
abandoned in such fashion. Hundreds are now dead or missing.

As Thai authorities investigate reported abuses and quietly rein in the
country's politically powerful military, the focus is shifting to the
search for a so-called regional solution to stem the Rohingya tide once
and for all. As Ye Myint Aung's remarks suggest, that search will not be
easy.

In fresh interviews with refugee experts, aid workers and foreign envoys,
it is clear that the Rohingya would have unusually strong claims to
refugee status and therefore international resettlement.

Raymond Hall, regional co-ordinator for Southeast Asia for the UN's
refugee agency, said the Rohingya's plight was as bad as anything he had
seen in more than 30 years of working with migrants, including spells in
Hong Kong handling Vietnamese boatpeople.
While some returning migrants may face atrocities such as in Darfur, Mr
Hall said that in terms of "generalised and systemic oppression of their
most basic rights, the suffering of the Rohingya is about as bad as it
gets".

"Other people in this situation often have homes they can return to, but
for these people, they have nowhere they are welcome. That sense of home
is being denied them. It is a terrible plight."

Others familiar with their situation detail persecution on a grand scale
in the marshy lowlands of Rakhine, once known as Arakan, near Myanmar's
isolated western border with Bangladesh. Unable to legally work, move
villages or have access to education, even marriage between Rohingya
couples is fraught with risk.

Official permission must first be obtained before a couple can marry - in
practice a complex task that often involves big bribes from people who are
among the poorest in a nation that is now the poorest in Southeast Asia.
But if a couple is caught in a liaison outside marriage, the situation is
even worse, with the man risking four years' jail.

Some regional leaders have been quick to describe the Rohingya as economic
migrants seeking a better life, rather than refugees. Like the best
propaganda, it is at least partly true.

As one refugee worker explained, if you asked a Rohingya boatperson why
they fled, they would inevitably say to find work. The reason they must
seek work, however, is because they are denied the most basic rights at
home - something that falls into realms of clear persecution.

Current estimates suggest there are 800,000 Rohingya in Myanmar, and a
further 200,000 living in poverty in Bangladesh, including 27,000 in
camps. Almost all would have strong claims to refugee status.

Yet both Asian and western diplomats warn it would also be naive to
imagine the creation of regional reception and detention centres,
screening procedures and resettlement en masse in third countries - the
kind of events Hong Kong witnessed as it handled waves of boatpeople from
Vietnam in the late 1970s and 1980s.

"It ain't going to happen," one western envoy said. "The Rohingya are
being treated as miserably as anyone you could find, but there is just no
stomach anywhere - in Asia or in the west - for any policy on that kind of
scale.

"There is universal understanding that, as we move to try to fix this, we
must not do anything that turns the tide of Rohingya into a flood. No one
is prepared to handle it now ... this isn't post-Vietnam and the height of
cold war."

Instead, both western and Asian diplomats talk of solutions where small
groups of migrants are quietly resettled, but more visibly, international
pressure intensifies on Myanmar's military rulers to extend even the most
basic rights to Rohingya - an ethnic group whose very name they refuse to
acknowledge and insist have no claim to nationality. Securing adequate
food supplies and working opportunities will be a key part of the effort.
In short, they want to fix the problem at source.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres arrived in Myanmar at
the weekend to start a week of talks with junta generals and visits to UN
offices.

Mr Guterres is expected to travel by road and boat to reach the UNHCR's
troubled field office in Rakhine, an important beachhead as the agency
seeks to stabilise the situation and draw in international support and
understanding.

The UN is actively preparing for a meeting next month of the so-called
Bali Process on human trafficking, a seven-year-old grouping that
diplomats hope can be used to find some meaningful solution.

The Bali Process is chaired by Indonesia and Australia, and includes all
major regional powers - and Myanmar. It has worked to improve immigration
training and co-operation in tackling human smuggling.

It has never tackled a specific crisis such as the Rohingya, but some
envoys believe its fledgling nature may allow a fresh approach.

It has been all too clear that more established bodies, such as the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations, lack the political and diplomatic
will to tackle such an issue involving one of its members.

At the annual Asean leaders' summit in Thailand last week, Myanmar was
able to invoke the grouping's long-cherished policy of not interfering in
any members' internal affairs to keep the Rohingya issue firmly on the
sidelines.

Summit chairman, Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, said the leaders
acknowledged the need for a regional solution to the problem of "Indian
Ocean migrants" - but made clear it would have to come from outside the
bloc.

"Asean is too hung up on what it can't do, rather than what it can
achieve, and Myanmar exploited that," said one frustrated Indonesian
diplomat involved in the sessions. "The Bali Process is young and still
finding its way ... it is a good opportunity to carve out a role for
itself."

Myanmar may find it harder to avoid discussions of the Rohingya at the
meeting, but that does not mean it will be easier to force an official
change of heart from an increasingly insular and isolated regime.

Scholars have traced Rohingya settlements in Arakan from Persia going back
to the 9th century, while the last century saw them formally accepted as
citizens under British colonial rule. Myanmar's present regime
deliberately wrote them out of a nationality law in 1983, however, and Ye
Myint Aung's recent remarks show official hostility remains.

Traders and conservative Muslims - Rohingya women are kept indoors from
the age of 14 - they are treated with suspicion by other ethnic groups,
including fellow Muslims. "A perfect solution is going to be hard to
find," a Thai Foreign Ministry official said. "But, if there is one, it
has to be found within Myanmar."

The UN has discretely been lobbying China, India and Russia - all members
of the Bali grouping - to exploit their own relations with Myanmar's
leaders to force a change towards the Rohingya. No single country can
boast extensive or direct influence over Myanmar's ultimate ruler, the
secretive and reportedly paranoid Senior General Than Shwe, however.

"We've been dealing with Myanmar for years on this issue, and frankly
speaking, it doesn't get any easier," said one senior Bangladeshi
diplomat.

"It has actually become harder to know what is going on at the very top
... I worry that the only solution to the persecution of these people will
come when the generals are no longer in power. And we can only guess when
that will be."
____________________________________

March 10, Korea Times
What fails Asean? – Nehginpao Kipgen

The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) wrapped up a
two-day summit in Thailand under the theme ``ASEAN Charter for ASEAN
Peoples'' on March 1.

The discussion included: toward more effective community building,
enhancing regional resilience against global threats, and reinforcing
ASEAN centrality in the evolving regional architecture.

Over the years, the association has gained gradual attention and
recognition from around the world for its successes and failures. This
14th summit was viewed to be one of the most covered events by both the
Eastern and Western media.

The past 42 years of its existence had been dominated by economy and
security. Human rights issues were either ignored or avoided.

Five important issues contributed to the popularity of the gathering.
First, it was the first summit after signing a landmark charter that made
ASEAN a legal entity.

Second, was the global financial meltdown; third, the summit postponement
due to political turmoil in the host country; fourth, the continued human
rights violations in Myanmar (Burma) and recent Rohingya refugee issue;
fifth, the new U.S. administration showing interest in the region.

There has been considerable cooperation and progress on different fronts
but human rights. The association's non-interference policy has been an
object of international criticism.

Too much emphasis on the economy has overshadowed the brutality of a
regime like the Myanmarese military junta; the bloc's engagement policy
has not yielded a democratic change.

The human rights issue is one fundamental area where ASEAN has been
failing. To transform ASEAN into a European Union-style single market by
2015, which the bloc envisions, will entail substantive changes.

The charter calls for greater participation by the young and other civil
societies to make the bloc stronger, but the fact is that millions of
people from these countries are still afraid to voice their opinions
freely.

On Feb. 27, foreign ministers applauded the introduction of an ASEAN Human
Rights Body. ``It is a historic first for Southeast Asia,'' said Rosario
Manalo, a Philippine diplomat.

The final document, expected to be published in July, is designed to
promote and protect human rights. It is, however, not powered to enforce
stringent measures to the extent of punishing a member country.

There is a reason behind why a repressive regime like Myanmar's State
Peace and Development Council welcomes such a human rights initiative.

The simple fact is that for any decision to be taken, it will have to be
``based on consultation and consensus,'' which is similar to the veto
power system in the U.N. Security Council. The body will also have to
follow the principle of ``noninterference in the internal affairs of ASEAN
member states.''

On the opening day of the summit, the ASEAN leadership was tested on the
very issue they applauded. Two democracy activists from Myanmar and
Cambodia, who were selected to represent their own countries, were barred
from attending the meeting when leaders of the two countries threatened to
walk out.

This is an example of how ASEAN has taken its course of action in the
past. Will ASEAN continue to choose appeasement over human rights is a
question that remains to be seen?

Echoing U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's message on Myanmar
during her maiden trip to Asia, Scot Marciel, deputy assistant secretary
of state and envoy to ASEAN, said, ``The sanctions-based approach hasn't
worked, the ASEAN engagement approach hasn't worked 
 there isn't any
obvious way ahead.''

In his summit opening speech, Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said,
``ASEAN will put people first _ in its vision, in its policies, and in its
action plans.'' This statement, if it is to materialize, has to involve a
concerted approach by all ASEAN members.

The establishment of the Human Rights Body should be the beginning of an
end to rights abuses and a new era of freedom in line with universal
declaration of human rights.

By removing trade barriers and integrating economically, ASEAN looks
forward to becoming a European Union-like community in 2015. If this
becomes a reality, ASEAN will have greater leverage in international
politics.

In order for ASEAN to become a vibrant and responsible body, it needs to
protect the welfare of the ruled and not just the rulers. After years of
engagement policy failure, the association needs to review its policy on
Myanmar.

Will ASEAN leaders continue to say that it is not our business when
neighbors' houses are on fire, women are raped, thousands of villages are
destroyed, and thousands of people flee across borders?

In tandem with a new vision and the goal-set of making ASEAN a respectable
body, the association needs to start addressing human rights problems, the
issue on which it has been failing.

Nehginpao Kipgen is general secretary of U.S.-based Kuki International
Forum (www.kukiforum.com) and a researcher on the rise of political
conflicts in modern Myanmar (1947-2004). He is also the author of several
analytical articles on the politics of Asia published in different leading
newspapers. He can be reached at nehginpao at yahoo.com.