BurmaNet News, April 10-13, 2009

[Editor]

April 10 – 13, 2009, Issue #3689


INSIDE BURMA
AP: Military-ruled Myanmar celebrates New Year
VOA: Burma general urges smooth 2010 elections
Mizzima News: NLD to hold nation-wide party meeting
Kaladan Press Network: More Natala villagers brought to Maungdaw town

HEALTH / AIDS
Irrawaddy: Burma faces shortage of TB drugs in 2010

DRUGS
DVB: Junta rely on drug money to stay in power
AFP: Myanmar: hundreds of drug traffickers arrested

REGIONAL
New Zealand Herald: Fiji compared to Burma as junta tightens its grip

INTERNATIONAL
Irrawaddy: Critical report on Nargis relief criticized by NGOs
Irrawaddy: US and Australia agree to work on Burma issue

OPINION / OTHER
Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism: Myanmar poses tough test
for Asean Charter – Tita C. Valderama
Washington Post: U.S. seeks new track on Burma – Tim Johnston

STATEMENT
National Democratic Front: Seventh National Democratic Front (NDF) Congress

ANNOUNCEMENT
Norwegian Parliamentary Caucus on Burma: Crimes against humanity in
Eastern Burma?




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INSIDE BURMA

April 13, Associated Press
Military-ruled Myanmar celebrates New Year

It's Monday and far from a typical day in Yangon, whose 5 million citizens
normally proceed with caution under the ever-present eyes of the ruling
military.

The whisky has flowed since early morning and teens in water-soaked
clothing dance to pulsating music in the streets. A typically reserved
woman good-naturedly takes a foreigner by the shirt collar and pours a
bottle of water down the back of his neck.

"It's water festival. Best time of year," a man in his early 20s explains
in stilted English, jiggling in his hand a plastic bottle of whiskey
although it is only midmorning.

Many Buddhists who frown on excessive drinking make a spectacular
exception during the four-day water festival known as Thingyan a
celebration of public disorder that Myanmar's ruling junta has learned it
must warily endure.

Myanmar, like its neighbors Thailand and Laos, ushers in the Buddhist New
Year with the water fights held annually during the hottest month of the
year.

Although the holiday, which began Monday, was once celebrated with the
gentle sprinkling of scented water, it now see battles with high-powered
hoses and revelers dancing en masse to hip-hop music.

Every year, the government warns that misbehavior and immodest dress will
not be tolerated, but the warnings are ignored by a repressed, socially
conservative people who are determined to let their hair down.

"Rules come out every year, but who cares about rules," said Thin Thiri, a
17-year-old girl who dyed her hair red for the occasion. "Thingyan comes
only once a year and we won't let regulations ruin such fun."

Police officers in sodden trousers battle to keep traffic flowing through
flooded streets. The military are tolerant but nervous. Soldiers waiting
in the backs of parked trucks wear combat helmets and are armed with
automatic rifles.

Young children love it and so do the teens and 20-somethings who often use
the occasion to dress like rock and roll rebels. It is a marked departure
from the regularly conservative dress code of Yangon's streets.

"We let go of the bad things that have happened and look forward to a
better year," said a saturated man in his 20s, who gave his name only as
Nandar.

Myanmar has been under military rule since 1962. The current junta came to
power in 1988 after crushing pro-democracy demonstrations and killing as
many as 3,000 people. It called elections in 1990 but refused to honor the
results when pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's party won
overwhelmingly. Suu Kyi has spent 13 of the last 19 years under house
arrest.
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April 11, Voice of America
Burma general urges smooth 2010 elections

State media reported Saturday that Burma's deputy leader urged military
officers to take responsibility for the success of next year's planned
elections.

The New Light of Myanmar newspaper quoted General Maung Aye as telling a
graduating class of new officers Friday that it was their job to ensure
the country's transition to democracy. The general said election violence
has destabilized some countries where democracy had not been mature.

The precise election date has not been set and it is not known who will be
running. Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been forbidden from
participating, because she was once married to a British citizen.

Western nations have denounced Burma's new constitution and next year's
vote as a sham designed to entrench military rule.
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April 13, Mizzima News
NLD to hold nation-wide party meeting – Myint Maung

Burma’s chief opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD),
has called for a nation-wide party meeting, in a bid to discuss the ruling
military junta’s Constitution and the current political situation in the
country.

The meeting is to be held from April 20 to April 29, at the party head
office in Rangoon. All branch offices across the country, including youth
and women’s wings have been invited to attend the meeting, party
spokesperson Nyan Win said.

“We will be discussing the Constitution, and future activities of the
party. We have extended an invitation to all branch offices, requesting
them to send two delegates each. We are expecting about 100 to 150
participants at the meeting,” Nyan Win told Mizzima on Friday.

During the meeting, the party Central Executive Committee would give a
policy paper that they had drafted to all the delegates, who would attend
the meeting from across the country, he added.

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April 10, Kaladan Press Network
More Natala villagers brought to Maungdaw town

About 200 families of Natala villagers or new comers were brought to
Maungdaw town from Burma proper on April 8, said an aide of Nasaka of
Maungdaw town.  At present, they are staying at Sikdar Para State High
School of Maungdaw Town and are being fed by nearby Rohingya villagers
after collection ration from villagers. The SPDC authorities do not feed
them. The Rohingya villagers were ordered by the concerned authority to
feed the new comers.

The new comers to be settled in Maungdaw township such as  20 families in
Taungbro village, 80 families in Nurula Para, 20 families in Sikdar Para
and the rest will be settled in south of Maungdaw Town.

There are over sixty Natala villages in Maungdaw and Buthidaung Township.
The Natala villagers frequently creates problem with Rohingya villagers.
They steal cattle, vegetables from Rohingya villagers and even robbed the
Rohingya travelers and they are encouraged by the concerned authorities
who give them all the facility and protection to become goons in Northern
Arakan, said a trader from Maungdaw town on condition of anonymity.

The State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) established a police
out-post or army battalion closes by Natala villages to give them
security. If the Natala villagers commit any crime against the Rohingya
villagers, the police or Nasaka take no action against them. They never
hesitate to commit any crime against the Rohingy community. The
authorities do not take any action against the Natala villagers, said a
village elder requesting not to be named.

The Rohingya villagers are in panic-stricken position because of Natala
villagers and Rakhine villagers are being equipped such as lethal weapons
and even guns while the knife, hoe, knife, axe etc---are being seized from
the Rohingya villagers. SPDC authorities encourage the Natala and Rakhine
villagers physically and morally to create problem against the Rohingya
community. Such this situation, more Natala villagers or new comers are
being brought to northern Arakan. Therefore, north Arakan will become a
danger place for the Rohingya community, said a businessman who declined
to be named.

Before 1992, "model villages" were built in Arakan State, mainly in
Maungdaw, Buthidaung and Rathedaung Townships. The building of model
villages reportedly intensified after the formation of Nasaka in 1992,
according to a schoolteacher from Buthidaung north.

However, officially the program is under the supervision of the Ministry
for Development of Border Areas and National Races, better known under its
Burma acronym "Natala". Therefore, model villages are locally known as
"Natala Village.”

The majority of the population of model or Natala villages is Rakhine
people from other parts of Arakan State and some are poor Burmans from the
central Burma, mostly retired civil servants, drug addict, and former
prisoners.

Northern Arakan is a place of fewer arable farm lands and mostly
mountainous region. It is also, a place many Rohingyas were transferred to
northern Arakan from southern Arakan state, after breaking out of riots
between Rakhine and Rohingya in 1942. Why the authorities do brings new
comers to north Arakan from Burma proper, asked an elderly man.

The present ruling military junta successfully emptied Rohingyas from some
of the townships in southern Arakan by driving them to the north of
Arakan. Their aim is to reduce the Rohingya population where Rohingya
people are majority by implementing model or Natala villages.

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ON THE BORDER
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BUSINESS / TRADE

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HEALTH / AIDS

April 13, Irrawaddy
Burma faces shortage of TB drugs in 2010 – Wai Sann

Burma will face a serious shortage of tuberculosis drugs next year unless
it can find a new source of funding to replace the current supplier, the
Global Drug Facility, which will end its support at the end of this year,
according to health agencies.

“We’re now urgently trying to persuade international donors to donate the
drugs for next year, but so far we haven’t received any funding yet,” an
official from an international non-governmental organization said on
condition of anonymity.

The official also added that health agencies have received a five-year
grant to fight the endemic disease from the Global Fund agency, but that
project will not start until 2011.

“We’re trying our best to fill the one-year gap with international
assistance, but we just don’t know when the funding will come,” the
official said.

According to health agencies, the government has already held a meeting
with health agencies in Naypyitaw, the new capital, to discuss means of
raising the necessary funding, and will hold another in late April.

Speaking at a meeting of the Ministry of Health and the Global Drug
Facility in Naypyidaw in the first week of December 2008, Burma’s Health
Minister Kyaw Myint said that the country needs a sustainable supply of
tuberculosis drugs to continue making progress in controlling the spread
of the disease.

The Global Drug Facility has provided first-line TB drugs to Burma through
the National TB Program (NTP) since 2002. It decided last year not to
renew its program after it received confirmation that the Global Fund
would provide a five-year grant starting in 2011.

According to an NTP report, about 1.5 percent of Burma’s population of
55.4 million becomes infected with TB annually. Around 130,000 people
become TB patients every year, approximately half of whom are “active”
cases capable of spreading the disease to others.

Burma is one of 22 countries in the world most affected by TB. According
to sources, the government spent US $440,000 in the fiscal year 2007-08 to
treat TB patients.

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DRUGS

April 10, Democratic Voice of Burma
Junta rely on drug money to stay in power – Francis Wade

Profits from Burma’s opium trade are working their way into the pockets of
local government authorities, claims a report which found an increase in
poppy cultivation last year across Burma’s northeastern Shan state.

Increased numbers of poppy farms and comparatively healthy crops occurred
throughout Shan state last year, resulting in a 15 per cent drop in the
price of opium, said the Lahu National Development Organisation.

The report discovered that village authorities and militia heads continue
to collect a tax from opium farmers, suggesting that capital from the
opium trade is reaching local, if not senior, government.

“Each house had to pay two tical (32.66 grams) of opium to a local
authority,” said the report.

“Depending on the area, this could be a militia chief, a village headman,
or a “middle-man”, all of whom then pass the tax to a local Burma Army
battalion or township authority.”

The pro-government armed group United Wa State Army control the majority
of the opium trade in Shan state, placing restrictions on who traffickers
can sell the drug to.

The report said no progress had been seen in the fight against the opium
trade because of the government’s hand in it.

“The ruling military clique has been relying on drug money to run
businesses and stay in power,” it said.

It added that the government’s claims of success in eradicating poppy
cultivation were in order to receive international assistance.

Burma is second to Afghanistan in global opium production according to the
United States.

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April 11, Agence France Presse
Myanmar: hundreds of drug traffickers arrested

Myanmar arrested 368 drug traffickers last month and seized more than
three million illegal stimulant tablets, state media reported, in a bid to
counter US claims that it has failed to tackle drugs.

The New Light of Myanmar newspaper said that in March police, customs
officials and the military together recovered opium, heroin and low-grade
opium.

They also seized stimulant tablets and chemicals used to make drugs, the
newspaper reported.

"Action was taken against 368 persons -- 291 men and 77 women -- in 251
cases," the paper said.

Myanmar's junta has vowed that the country will be drug-free by 2014 but
it remains the world's second-largest opium producer after Afghanistan.

The US says the nation has also become a hub for amphetamine production.

There has been a huge drop in opium cultivation in the country since the
1990s but poverty and the global financial crisis have seen many farmers
return to the trade.

A UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report in February noted a three
percent increase in cultivated areas in 2008, when the crop was grown on
28,500 hectares (70,425 acres).

Myanmar's foreign ministry in March accused the US of giving "inaccurate
and politically motivated assessments" in its global narcotics report in
February, which said there had been a significant increase in opium poppy
cultivation.

Myanmar has been ruled by the military since 1962 and is under broad US
and European sanctions over its lack of democratic reform, widely
documented human rights abuses, and the detention of opposition leader
Aung San Suu Kyi.

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ASEAN

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REGIONAL

April 13, New Zealand Herald
Fiji compared to Burma as junta tightens its grip – Yvonne Tahana

Fiji is deteriorating into the Burma of the South Pacific, say regional
experts who warn the troubled nation is now staring at years of stifling
military rule and financial destitution.

Commentators have labelled as an "outrage" the latest developments in Fiji
which effectively saw the country's military leader, Frank Bainimarama,
return to the leadership with more power than ever.

The actions stemmed from a court ruling last Thursday which found that
Commodore Bainimarama's regime, in power since a 2006 coup, was illegal
under the 1997 constitution and could be replaced.

In response, the ailing 88-year-old President, Ratu Josefa Iloilo, sacked
the judges, dissolved the constitution, ruled out any election for five
years and briefly removed Commodore Bainimarama before reappointing him to
the top job.

"This was all a total charade, just a hoax that spits in the face of
democracy," said Professor Brij Lal, a Pacific specialist at Australian
National University.

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"The President is a senile old man, a puppet in the pocket of the
military. It was planned all along that he would look after Bainimarama
and strengthen the regime, and no justice would be done."

Fijian reporters have been told not to speak to foreign media by
Government censors who are checking stories before they go to print.

A senior reporter from one of Fiji's three daily newspapers spoke to the
Herald on the condition of anonymity because journalists have been locked
up by the military before.

"Our editor in chief was one of those taken up to the military camp so
we're really cautious about what we print. He was taken up for
questioning, [another staff member] has been up there many times. It's
really unpredictable, we don't know what these people are up to.
Journalists have learned from what happened in 2006, 2007 ... they're
taking precautions."

President Iloilo abolished the constitution on Friday in response to the
Appeal Court ruling that Commodore Bainimarama's coup was illegal, and the
commodore was sworn in as Prime Minister on Saturday. He immediately
declared a 30-day state of emergency. Regulations giving the police and
military extensive powers were also put in place.

Pacific leaders have condemned the moves and say they amount to turning
Fiji into a military dictatorship.

Over Easter "information officers", who were accompanied by a mixture of
plainclothes and uniformed police, were coming into newsrooms during the
late afternoon to check journalists' copy.

"By the looks of it most of them don't want to be doing what they're
doing," the reporter said. "The first time we had it they joined us for
kava downstairs. There's no one standing over us with guns or anything but
it's looking at the stories and telling us: 'This is good, this isn't."'

The reporter said some stories rejected by censors were not
anti-Government, but were political in nature, while others had travelled
back and forth to the Ministry of Information, Communications and Media
Relations before being accepted or denied.

Meanwhile, Fijian officials were in the process of deporting an Australian
journalist last night.

Sean Dorney, who works for ABC news, said: "They called me to the
immigration department this morning and informed me they were unhappy with
my reporting being broadcast on the local Fiji One network.

TV 3 News reporting staff have also been expelled, with political reporter
Sia Aston and cameraman Matt Smith being told they were no longer welcome
in the country.

New Zealand's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade's travel advisory
warns that while the situation is calm, civil disorder and violence cannot
be ruled out.

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INTERNATIONAL

April 10, Irrawaddy
Critical report on Nargis relief criticized by NGOs – Wai Moe

Twenty-one international nongovernmental organizations involved in relief
and recovery work in Cyclone Nargis in Burma slammed a joint report by the
Center for Public Health and Human Rights at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg
School of Public Health and the Thailand-based Emergency Assistance Team
(EAT) as “inaccurate” and a “disservice” on Thursday.

In a joint letter, the NGO group said that the report, titled “After the
Storm: Voices from the Delta,” published on February 27, was “both
inaccurate and does a disservice to the courageous and resilient survivors
of Cyclone Nargis.”

The report focused on human rights violations in the wake of Cyclone
Nargis. The authors said that assessments done with the collaboration of
the military government have reported little on the human rights situation
for survivors and relief workers. .

The response letter said, “We found a number of shortcomings in the
report, including its premise, methodology and most of its findings.”

Defending the relief effort, the letter said: “Dozens of international and
local relief agencies along with foreign embassies are continually
examining humanitarian and delivery from inside Burma. They are able to do
so independently and first-hand.

“The international humanitarian assistance delivered to date has been
life-saving and life sustaining for millions of cyclone survivors. It has
reached them without significant interference.”

The authors of the Johns Hopkins-EAT report did not get information from
the more than 50 international and independent organizations which have
operated “on-the-ground” humanitarian work over the past nine months in
the country, according to the response letter.

The letter claimed that misleading reports could undermine further aid to
cyclone survivors.

Johns Hopkins and EAT said that their report is “the only community-based,
independent assessment” of the cyclone relief effort.

“The voice, experiences and eyewitness accounts of the response to Cyclone
Nargis have been missing from the international debate around the relief
effort,” said the report, describing part of its methodology.

Researchers said in the report that independent assessment of the Nargis
relief response proved to be challenging and the assessments were done
without the collaboration of the military government.

Based on interviews with Nargis victims from the Irrawaddy delta, the
report included accounts of the arrests of local relief workers and forced
labor, including some cases of child labor, in the disaster area. Cyclone
survivors were forced to work on military-run construction projects such
as the repair of military bases, schools, roads and other infrastructure
projects, the report said.

The NGO response letter said that international law is clear that public
work enacted during an immediate emergency period is not forced labor.

The 21 NGOs included 11 US-based NGOs—Adventist Development and Relief
Agency (ADRA), CARE, Hope International, International Development
Enterprises (IDE), International Rescue Committee, Mercy Corps,  Pact,
Population Services International (PSI), Relief International, Save the
Children and World Vision.

Others NGOs were South African NGO Action Aid, the Burnet Institute, which
is a medical research and public health group in Australia, an Italian NGO
called CESVI, the Danish Church Aid, the Geneva-based Lutheran World
Federation, Malteser International, based in Germany, a London-based
charity group, Merlin, the Norwegian Peoples Aid, Norwegian Refugee
Council and Welthungerhilfe (German Agro-Action).

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April 13, Irrawaddy
US and Australia agree to work on Burma issue – Lalit K Jha

At the conclusion of the two-day Australia-United States Ministerial
Consultations, the two countries agreed to continue to work together to
achieve a free and democratic Burma.

Leading the Australian delegation, Foreign Minister Stephen Smith and
Defense Minister Joel Fitzgibbon held a wide range of talks on bilateral
and regional issues with their American counterparts. The US side was
represented by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary
Robert Gates.

While, Burma was not one of the major topics of discussions, it figured
during the talks and was reflected in the joint communiqué issued at the
end of the meeting on Thursday.

“Both countries reaffirmed their commitment to a free and democratic Burma
that respects the rights of all its citizens.  They agreed to work
together in support of that goal,” the communiqué said.

The statement noted Indonesia’s significant progress in strengthening its
democracy, reforming its military, countering terrorist groups, tackling
corruption and promoting regional security.

“They committed themselves to deeper and broader engagement with
Indonesia, particularly on such issues as climate change and the global
economic crisis,” the statement said.

The two countries also noted their shared commitment to encourage
Vietnam’s continuing economic liberalization and legal reform and welcomed
Vietnam’s increasing international engagement, including its role as a
member of the UN Security Council and as the next chair of the Association
of Southeast Asian Nations.

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OPINION / OTHER

April 13, Philippine Center For Investigative Journalism
Myanmar poses tough test for Asean Charter – Tita C. Valderama

What should have been a showcase moment for Thailand, current country
chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) has turned
into a logistical and public relations nightmare—and a major embarrassment
to the government of Oxford-educated Thai Prime Minister Abhisit
Vejjajiva.

For sure, most of the Asean leaders—among them Philippine President Gloria
Arroyo—probably commiserated with the embattled Abhisit, who was hounded
by protesters to the 14th Asean Summit’s site in Pattaya, some 165
kilometers south of Bangkok. There, the protesters pressed on with their
demand for his resignation. By Saturday, the Thai hosts were forced to
cancel the entire summit altogether after the demonstrators broke into one
of the official venues.

But one Asean member country may have been thankful that, for once, it was
not the focus of attention: Burma, or officially the Union of Myanmar, the
largest country by geogra­phical area in mainland Southeast Asia or
Indochina.

Indeed, even though the agenda for the Pattaya summit was supposed to
concentrate mainly on finance and trade, Burma was probably bracing itself
for yet another round of criticism from rights activists who refuse to let
Asean—and the rest of the world— forget about the abuses committed by the
country’s military junta that has ruled over the last 48 years.

Serious obstacle

Burma’s perennial bottom-dweller slot in world economic lists was
considered one of the serious obstacles in Asean’s desire to achieve a
single market by 2015. Yet it is the country’s dismal human-rights record
that was seen as the real stumbling bloc to that goal.

This was why the Asean Charter came into force only in December 2008,
after fierce objections to it from Burma’s military government were
finally overcome.

The charter is intended to transform Asean into a rules-based organization
in the style of the European Union. It is also supposed to give the
regional grouping a legal identity for inter­national negotiations and
transactions.

Among other things, the charter promotes free trade and economic
integration and incorporates a 10-year treaty banning nuclear weapons in
the region. “It will bind some 560 million people with the potential of
making a stronger voice for prosperity, peace and stability,” Philippine
Foreign Affairs Assistant Secretary Claro Cristobal has said.

But critics have also described the Asean Charter as “a purely symbolic
document,” largely because of the absence of provision for sanctions or
expulsion of countries that violate the rights of their own citizens. A
provision for the creation of a human-rights body also barely made it
through, and was probably the groundbreaking document’s most debated and
highly controversial part.

Mere talk shop?

It doesn’t help any that Asean has a “tradition” of agreeing by consensus,
and a policy on non-interference in internal affairs that have given the
grouping a not-so-flattering reputation of being just a “talk shop.”

Debbie Stothard, coordinator for the human-rights group Alternative Asean
Network for Burma (Alt-Asean), has pointed out, “Asean has often been
ridiculed for apparently turning a blind eye to the Burmese regime’s
failure in complying with the principles now enshrined in the
association’s charter as well as the ongoing human rights abuses committed
by the junta, including the arrest, intimidation, and sentencing of
political activists and pro-democracy demonstrators.”

Stothard noted that between the adoption of the Asean Charter in a
leaders’ summit in Cebu City in January 2008 and its coming into force in
December of the same year, the Burmese military rulers had not taken steps
to address the political and human rights concerns that had been raised in
the course of drafting the charter.

Instead, she said, in November the military junta even ordered longer
prison terms—ranging from four months to 68 years—for more than 200
political activists, including opposition journalists and poets.

All rights violators

All of Asean’s 10 member countries— Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia,
Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam— have
come under fire at one time or another for alleged violations of various
human rights.

More recently, Thailand was criticized for its mishandling of Rohingya
refugees from Burma. According to many media reports, the refugees were
first gathered in an isolated island by members of the Thai military
before they were forced to board rafts and left in the open seas with the
most meager of food and water provisions.

But it is Burma that inarguably has the spottiest human-rights record in
Asean, even though the country is a signatory to some of the most
important international treaties on rights protection and promotion,
particularly the Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
Against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

At one point, the human-rights organization Amnesty International even
declared that “torture has become an institution” in Burma under the
junta.

Apart from torture, among the litany of abuses committed allegedly by the
Burmese military and which are mentioned repeatedly in reports of
international human-rights groups are murder, rape, detention without
trial, arbitrary executions, massive forced relocations, forced labor of
villagers as military porters in combat zones and child labor.

‘Brutal prodigal beast’

Hundreds of thousands of rural folk, especially in areas occupied by the
minorities, have fled their homes to avoid being drafted by force into the
military. Many of them have wound up on the borders of Thailand, where
some 150,000 Burmese refugees have settled temporarily in nine camps.

To Zin Linn, information director of the Bangkok-based National Coalition
Government of the Union of Burma, Asean itself is the loser in its
tolerance of Burma’s alleged misdeeds. The “winners” are the junta, which
has gained credibility by Burma’s participation in the grouping, and some
Asean member states, which have benefited from the arrangement.

The national coalition is the Burmese government-in-exile composed mostly
of those who won in the 1990 parliamentary elections that the junta
refused to recognize.

Commented Zin Linn: “Asean is trying to tame a brutal prodigal beast. [We]
think they can’t win because the [Burmese] generals even use the Asean
ticket just for their benefit. They are exploiting the Asean because, you
know, Asean is also a toothless tiger.”

“The Asean plays a very soft stance,” he added. “I think [member
countries] would also like to exploit some economic benefits or interests
from Burma because it has a lot of natural resources. Thailand, Malaysia
and, you know, Singapore, they are exploiting the natural resources . . .
logging and also the natural gas.”

Top investor

Thailand is acknowledged as Burma’s top source of foreign direct
investment, and is estimated to provide half of the official $15-billion
foreign direct investment in 2008. Burma’s hydropower industry attracts
much of the investment dollars from neighboring countries like Thailand,
Malaysia and Singapore, but firms from these nations have also placed
their bets on Burma’s timber and garment industries.

Kavi Chongkittavorn, assistant group editor of The Nation Multi-Media
Group in Bangkok, meanwhile said that for the human rights body to work
under the charter, the terms of reference should be comprehensive and
liberal to provide a clear mandate to follow up, investigate, and write
reports on cases of rights violations.

But Kavi, who served as special assistant to the Asean secretary general
in 1993 to 1994, observed that one problem with the association is that it
does not have a strong leader who could speak out against the likes of
Burma—a leader who is respected by the rest of member-states. “At the
moment,” he said, “there is no such leader, so Burma can get away [with
violations of Asean regulations and principles].”

Asean Secretary General and veteran Thai diplomat Dr. Surin Pitsuwan has
been candid enough to accept that the Asean Charter is not a perfect
document.

In an address before members of the Southeast Asian Press Alliance in
Bangkok in November, Surin encouraged journalists from the region to
“contribute to its perfection.”

“Inform your people that they, too, have a stake in the implementation,”
he said, “with the letter, with the spirit of the Charter so that we can
help build this society.”

Elections in 2010

As for Burma, Khuensai Jaiyen, editor in exile of the Shan Herald Agency
for News in Chiang Mai, Thailand, said that the Burmese themselves have
not lost hope.

“With Burma, there is always hope,” he said in an interview in Bangkok,
even though “the charter hasn’t given teeth to the grouping . . . only a
mouth.” Still, he said, the ‘mouth’ could be of use to the Burmese “if it
is spoken at the right time by the right person to the right person.”

Khuensai Jaiyen did caution that in Burma’s scheduled 2010 elections, the
junta could follow the same undemocratic processes it had in the May 2008
referendum on the country’s latest constitution. Yet even then, he said,
there may be reason to think positively.

“The hope is that the rulers would be satisfied with the one-quarter quota
and leave the rest to the people,” he said, referring to the military’s
share in the nation’s wealth in relation to the Asean goal of having a
single market in 2015. “If they are, then 2015 can be expected to be the
best year for Asean.”

____________________________________

April 11, Washington Post
U.S. seeks new track on Burma – Tim Johnston

When Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced recently that the
United States was reviewing its policy of sanctions against Burma's
government, it marked the final recognition of a global failure to modify
the behavior of one of the world's most repressive regimes.

"Clearly, the path we have taken in imposing sanctions hasn't influenced
the Burmese junta," Clinton said during a visit to Asia in February.
"Reaching out and trying to engage them hasn't worked, either."

Her comments have triggered an intense debate about what approach toward
Burma, also known as Myanmar, might prove more effective.

For the past 12 years, the United States has pursued a policy of
increasingly tight sanctions -- blocking imports, investment and all other
financial contacts and ultimately imposing sanctions that target
individual junta members. Meanwhile, Burma's Asian neighbors tried the
opposite approach, attempting to bend the junta to their will with a charm
offensive known as constructive engagement, epitomized by the 1997
invitation to join the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Neither path produced results.

Many diplomats and regional analysts say the most likely solution is a
combination of carrot and stick: expanding aid and lifting some of the
broad sanctions that have helped slow Burma's economic development to a
crawl, while at the same time crafting sanctions that more effectively hit
the bank accounts and travel plans of those who run and benefit from the
regime.

"We are examining what we would call 'intelligent engagement,' " a senior
Western diplomat said recently.

The opposition National League for Democracy, which won the 1990 elections
but was never allowed to take power, was once among the most vocal
advocates of sanctions, but the party's leader, Nobel Peace laureate Aung
San Suu Kyi, is under house arrest and unable to speak publicly, and many
observers have said that recent ambiguous statements by the group suggest
their position might be softening.

Sean Turnell, an Australian Burma expert, points out that there are
significant problems with lifting even broad sanctions. In the absence of
a gesture such as releasing the more than 2,100 political prisoners the
junta is holding, such a move could be seen as rewarding intransigence and
brutality, he said.

Thant Myint-U, author of a book about Burma's history titled "The River of
Lost Footsteps" and the grandson of former U.N. secretary general U Thant,
says the current sanctions on the regime are hurting ordinary Burmese more
than generals.

"Any moral hazard of seeming to reward the generals is far outweighed by
the moral hazard of not doing more to lift tens of millions of people out
of poverty and finding a new and more dynamic way of promoting development
and democracy in Burma," he said.

"Sanctions aren't a stick, and engagement is not a carrot -- it's almost
the other way around," Thant added. "We need to find ways of increasing
the right kind of aid, trade and investment, opening up the country,
strengthening the middle class and laying the foundations for a meaningful
democratic transition."

Turnell says that option is less clear-cut than it appears.

"The big argument for trading with Burma is that you are encouraging
alternative loci of power in the commercial class, which has interests in
protecting private property and the rule of law, but all that depends on
the commercial activity being located outside the state sector, and that
isn't the case in Burma," he said. "If you look at the gas, oil, gems,
agriculture sectors, you see the overwhelming involvement of the state."

Pragmatists say that the broad sanctions are hurting Western interests in
Burma and in the region as a whole.

"It was fairly clear that by ceasing our economic engagement in Burma we
were allowing particularly the Chinese presence to solidify -- because
they have a very amoral foreign policy -- and so I have been saying for
several years that we need to have a different approach with Burma," Sen.
James Webb (D-Va.), the head of the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee
on East Asian and Pacific affairs, said recently, referring to a trip he
took to Burma in 2001.

Many argue that the answer is to concentrate on the sanctions that
narrowly target members of the regime. "If you've got sanctions targeting
specific individuals, they are not only sending the right message, more
importantly they are sending the right message to the right people,"
Turnell said.

But he concedes that the pressure for some kind of change in policy is
becoming overwhelming.

"People are looking for an opportunity to do something," he said. "There
is a general despair that this goes on and on and the country keeps
sinking deeper and deeper."

____________________________________
STATEMENT

April 10, National Democratic Front
Seventh National Democratic Front (NDF) Congress

The Seventh Congress of the National Democratic Front (NDF) was
successfully held from April 6 to 9, 2009 at a certain place in the
liberated area. The Congress was attended by 27 delegates from 7 out of 8
NDF member organizations and 2 representatives, as observers, from the
Lisu nationality group.

At the congress, the delegates deliberated in detail upon the situation of
the ethnic nationality
organizations, and the domestic as well as the international situation.
Subsequently, the Congress laid down future programs for more united and
concerted struggle by forces of the oppressed ethnic nationalities so as
to regain the lost rights of the ethnic nationalities. Similarly, the
Congress was able to lay down programs for joint struggle with the
democratic forces, as desired by the entire people of the country.

The Congress decided to totally reject and oppose the 2008 State
Constitution of the SPDC. Likewise, the NDF unanimously decided to counter
the election to be held in 2010 by the military clique, as it was designed
to legalize and perpetuate the military dictatorship, and as it would not
lead to establishment of the rights of equality and self-determination of
the ethnic nationalities and a genuine federal union.

We, the Congress, call for a dialogue process participated by the
international organizations, concerned, in order to escape from
wide-ranging political, economic and social impasse currently besetting
the country. If the ruling military clique is desirous of national
reconciliation and genuine peace in the country, it is necessary for the
military clique to undertake the following tasks.

(1) Implementation of nationwide ceasefire;

(2) Release of all political prisoners including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, U
Tin Oo and Khun Tun Oo;

(3) Holding talks with all the political forces.

If the military clique ignores entirely to perform the tasks mentioned
above and launches military offensives in the areas of the ethnic
nationalities, it is the decision of this Congress for the NDF to
intensify and continue its revolutionary resistance war.

This Congress elected democratically leaders, at different levels, in
accordance with the Constitution for implementation, during the term of
the 7th Congress, the programs laid down by the NDF, as follows.

1. Chairman Saw David Tharckabaw (KNU)
2. Vice-Chaiman Khaing Soe Naing Aung (ALP)
3. General Secretary Mai Bhone Kyaw (PSLF)
4. Joint General Secretary Mahn Nyein Maung (KNU)

The Congress formed the Executive Committee, by further election,
consisting of 12 members, including the four mentioned above.

In conclusion, while making a pledge to carry on the revolutionary
struggle of the NDF until victory is achieved, we declare position of the
NDF 7th Congress by this statement.

“Victory through Alliance”

7th Congress
April 9, 2009 National Democratic Front (NDF)

Media Contact:
Chairman (66) 087 207 9296
General Secretary (66) 086 206 4045
P.O. Box – (101), Maesod, Tak. 63110, Tel / Fax (+ 66) 55 531 463, Email:
ndfburma at hotmail.com. Website: ndf-burma.org

____________________________________
ANNOUNCEMENT

April 13, Norwegian Parliamentary Caucus on Burma
Crimes against humanity in Eastern Burma?

An International and a Norwegian Responsibility to Protect

Time:     Thursday, 23 Apr 2009, 08:30-16:00
Place:     Norwegian Parliament (entrance by Halvorsens Konditori)

The situation in Burma calls for an international responsibility to
protect: Burma’s people have suffered more than four decades of brutal
military rule and civil conflict. Economic mismanagement has turned a
country that once was the rice bowl of Asia into one of the world’s
poorest and least developed.

Eastern Burma in particular is the location of an armed conflict that has
been ongoing since Burma’s independence and is considered the world’s
longest-running civil war. Civilians are being targeted and humanitarian
assistance to civilians is being deliberately obstructed in the course of
military operations. Since 1994, successive resolutions in the UN General
Assembly have called for a tripartite dialogue between the Burmese junta,
the democracy movement led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the country’s
ethnic nationalities as the path to national reconciliation in Burma. A
new constitution adopted in 2008 is set to entrench military dominance in
the political system despite fresh elections scheduled for 2010.

The conference will examine the following questions:

-      What are the facts on the ground in Eastern Burma?

-      Do violations of human rights and international humanitarian law in
Burma amount to crimes against humanity?

-      What are local experiences of living daily life in the shadow of
repression?

-      Reaching a tripartite dialogue and beyond: What are the political
challenges  facing Burma’s ethnic nationality leaders?

-      How can the international community exercise its responsibility to
protect in Burma and what should Norway do?

Time: 23 April 2009, 08:30-16:00, please include sufficient time for
security modalities.

Venue: Parliament building (entrance by Halvorsens Konditori)

Register: by 17 April 2009, to nina.hansen at nca.no

No registration fee

Language: English

Refreshments will be served at lunch break.

Contact Camilla Buzzi, +47-932-42-435, camilla.buzzi at nca.no