BurmaNet News, June 21-22, 2009

[Editor]

June 21 – 22, 2009, Issue #3739


INSIDE BURMA
AP: Myanmar's Suu Kyi says thanks for birthday wishes
Al Jazeera: Myanmar jails Suu Kyi supporters
Irrawaddy: Micro credit in USDA’s election plan
Telegraph (UK): Thousands donate hair to fix pagoda road in remote Burma

ON THE BORDER
DVB: Thai authorities tell Karen refugees to go home

ASEAN
Thai Press Reports: Thai activists urge Asean to revoke Myanmar’s membership
Xinhua: Myanmar to host ASEAN meeting on combating transnational crime

REGIONAL
Huffington Post (US): North Korea ship suspected of carrying missiles to
Burma
Mizzima News: Burmese activists join SAARC conference

INTERNATIONAL
Mizzima News: U.N. envoy en route to Rangoon ahead of boss' visit
Itar-Tass (Russia): Moscow hopes for an unbiased trial of Suu Kyi

OPINION / OTHER
Irrawaddy: Whys and Suu Kyi – Kyaw Zwa Moe
Newsweek: 'The lady' and the tramp; the Missouri misfit who helped bring
down Burma's future – Tony Dokoupil




____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

June 22, Associated Press
Myanmar's Suu Kyi says thanks for birthday wishes

Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi thanked supporters around the world who
sent her greetings for her 64th birthday last week while she remained in
prison.

A spokesman for her political party, Nyan Win, said Monday the Nobel Peace
laureate regretted she could not thank everyone individually. He said the
well-wishers whose messages he delivered to her included British Prime
Minister Gordon Brown, the Japanese and Australian governments, France's
foreign minister, and a U.S. senator.

Suu Kyi is being held in Yangon's Insein Prison while being tried for
violating the terms of her house arrest when an uninvited American man
swam secretly to her closely guarded lakeside home last month and stayed
two days. If convicted, she faces up to five years in prison.

Lawyers met Suu Kyi and two of her companions at the prison Monday for two
hours, Nyan Win said, and made preparations for their closing arguments,
for which no date has yet been set.

Nyan Win said he delivered 50 packets of Indian-style Biriyani rice,
chocolate cake and three bouquets of flowers to the prison for Suu Kyi's
birthday last Friday but was not allowed to see her.

"She is very well," he said. "A doctor takes care of her health." Suu Kyi
had been suffering from dehydration and low blood pressure just before
being charged last month.

She treated her guards and the prison doctor to some of the food, he said.

Suu Kyi's trial has drawn outrage from the international community and
local supporters who say the military government is using the affair as an
excuse to keep her detained through elections scheduled for next year.

She has spent more than 13 of the past 19 years in detention without
trial, mostly under house arrest.

____________________________________

June 22, Al Jazeera
Myanmar jails Suu Kyi supporters

Two members of Myanmar's main opposition party have been sentenced to 18
months in prison for "insulting religion", after they prayed for the
release of Aung San Suu Kyi.

The sentencing comes before the trial of Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the
National League for Democracy (NLD), resumes this week.

The 64-year-old Nobel laureate is accused of violating the terms of her
house arrest.

Nyan Win, an NLD spokesman, said Chit Pe and Aung Saw Wai, were both
sentenced last week.

Chit Pe and Aung Saw Wai were arrested at their homes in April after they
led a religious ceremony at a pagoda in Twante, about 40km west of Yangon,
the former capital.

'Insulting religion'

The authorities in Myanmar have frequently enforced a law against
insulting religion - which carries a penalty of up to two years in prison
-  since Buddhist monks led protests against the military government in
September 2007.

However, supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi have traditionally prayed at
pagodas for her freedom and for the release of the country's other
political prisoners.

The government of Myanmar has kept Aung San Suu Kyi in detention for 13 of
the past 19 years, after refusing to recognise the NLD's landslide victory
in the country's last elections in 1990.

She is currently being held in Yangon's Insein prison on charges of
breaching her house arrest rules in May, when an American man swam
uninvited to her lakeside residence.

Opposition supporters and Western governments critical of Myanmar have
condemned the trial, labelling it a pretext for the government to keep
Aung San Suu Kyi in detention beyond national elections it has scheduled
for next year.

The government says the vote will mark the culmination of Myanmar's
"roadmap to democracy," but critics say the regulations surrounding the
election mean it will only cement continued military control.

Myanmar has been under military rule since 1962.

____________________________________

June 22, Irrawaddy
Micro credit in USDA’s election plan – Wai Moe

The Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA), a mass
organization backed by the Burmese military junta, has expanded its micro
credit projects across the country ahead of the 2010 elections.

Sources close to the USDA said that the organization has increased funding
for micro loans for farmer in rural areas of Rangoon Division and other
parts of the country.

“In the Eastern District of Rangoon Division, the USDA have loaned Kyat
50,000 (about US $ 50) per acre to farmers. The project started at the
beginning of this monsoon season,” a source said. He added the loan
project is a part of the plan by the military backed political party to
win people’s hearts and minds in the coming elections.

Although micro credit has been given to farmers in some areas for the
first time this season, the USDA has been making loans in other parts of
Burma for at least two years.

“In Taikkyi Township, Rangoon Division, small loans have been given to
farmers for two years. The farmers got Kyat 50,000 for per acre of rice
field in the first year, but got more the second year,” said a USDA member
in the township.

The micro credit project has given more public relations space to the
junta-backed USDA. The pro-junta organization has had a bad name since
their participation in the 2003 Depayin Massacre, which brutally ambushed
pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s motorcade, and the September 2007
crackdown on demonstrators.

The military junta is allowing the USDA to become involved in rural social
development projects ahead of the elections scheduled for 2010. Such
projects include road building roads, plant propagation, provision of
educational and medical facilities upcountry, performing relief work in
the Irrawaddy delta after Cyclone Nargis, as well as providing micro
credit.

Though the USDA is not the official ruling party in Burma, USDA leaders
often meet with foreign delegations on a party to party basis.

In early June, Htay Oo, general secretary of the USDA, attended a North
Korean film event in Rangoon, which marked the 45th anniversary of the
North Korean leader Kim Jong Il’s seat on the central committee of the
ruling Worker’s Party of Korea.

Though the junta has yet to announce the election date officially, the
leaders of the USDA have been campaigning across the country.

The junta’s mouthpiece, The New Light of Myanmar reported on Monday that
an executive leader of the USDA, Burmese Information Minister Brig-Gen
Kyaw Hsan, met more than 23,000 people in Saw Township, Magway Division in
central Burma last week—observers believe this kind of trip is a part of
the election campaign.

____________________________________

June 21, Telegraph (UK)
Thousands donate hair to fix pagoda road in remote Burma

Thousands of Burmese have donated 1,750 pounds of their hair in a campaign
to repair the route to a sacred Buddhist pagoda, reports said on Sunday.

About 30,000 women and more than 100 men from the central city of Mandalay
and nearby towns have donated the hair, Kumudra magazine quoted a Buddhist
monk as saying.

Some of the locks measured 4 feet in length, said Shin Wayama Nanda, the
chief abbot of Mandalay's Naga monastery.

Monks overseeing the upkeep of the remote Alaungdaw Kathapha pagoda will
use proceeds from the sale of hair to repair sections of a road and build
bridges leading to the popular pilgrimage site, which is said to contain
the remains of one of Buddha's disciples.

The hair will be used in wigs or dolls, or it can be sold to traders from
China for similar purposes.

The campaign has spread to Yangon, the largest city in Burma, which is
also known as Myanmar, Popular magazine reported.

Access to the pagoda in the country's northwest is difficult. Some
sections of the route can be reached only by foot or on elephant.

"With the money acquired from the sale of hair, sections of the
25-kilometer (15-mile) road (will be repaired) and 15 small and
medium-length bridges will be built," Shin Wayama Nanda said.

One span will be called the "Shwe Hsan Nwe bridge," or "Bridge of Golden
Tresses".

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

June 22, Democratic Voice of Burma
Thai authorities tell Karen refugees to go home – Daniella Nayu

Karen refugees in Thailand are reportedly being told by Thai authorities
to return to their homes in Burma, despite concerns that many villages
near the border are littered with landmines.

Around 4000 Karen have fled Burma in recent weeks as a Burmese army
offensive against the opposition Karen National Union (KNU) has
intensified.

The European Union has called for the Burmese government to comply with
international humanitarian law regarding the offensive, amid reports that
Karen villagers still in the conflict zone were being forcibly recruited
into the Burmese army.

Thailand has so far remained quiet on the issue, despite the Burmese
government mouthpiece New Light of Myanmar newspaper accusing the Thai
government of providing “fertile soils to [Burmese] insurgent groups”.

The Karen Women’s Organisation (KWO) today released a statement saying
they are “very concerned” about the possibility of forced repatriation
because of what awaits the villagers upon their return.

“The local [Thai] authorities just come to the people and asked them to go
back” said KWO secretary, Dah Eh Kler.

According to the KWO, Karen villagers face the prospect of being forced to
walk in front of troop patrols as minesweeper, while rape of women is a
real threat: last week two Karen women, both teenagers, were raped and
murdered by the Burmese army.

“Wherever the Burma army goes there is widespread human rights abuses and
rape is just another weapon used by them against the people to dominate
and control them,” said Richard Chilvers from the Free Burma Rangers (FBR)
relief organisation.

There has been speculation that the reason for such a response by the Thai
authorities is due to pressure from the Burmese government and Democratic
Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), who are fighting alongside Burmese troops in
the offensive.

“It would be more likely for it to be the DKBA behind all this,” said
Chilvers.

“They basically want those people back in their area of control so they
can dominate everyone and force them to be human minesweepers [and be used
for] forced labour.”

There are also suggestions that the DKBA will force villagers to help them
with their new role as border guards.

“Now SPDC asked DKBA to become border guard, they need to recruit [and] if
our people go back, they will be forced to become army” said Dah Eh Kler.

Reports last week stated that the DKBA and Burmese army had ceased firing
mortars, some of which had landed on Thai soil.

Some are skeptical however as to how long the ceasefire will last, with
“absolutely no guarantee that the DKBA won’t again restart attacking their
own people,” according to Chilvers.

KWO meanwhile have described conditions that refugees are currently living
as “very hard”.

There have been mixed reports about whether there is sufficient food,
although KWO confirmed that diarrhea is prevalent, while “most people are
suffering from malaria”.

____________________________________
ASEAN

June 22, Thai Press Reports
Thai activists urge Asean to revoke Myanmar’s membership

A group of senators, activists and academics has called for Burma to be
suspended from Asean in protest against the ruling junta's oppression of
pro-democracy movements, the Bangkok Post reports.

The group includes Senator Jon Ungphakorn and academics such as Nidhi
Eowseewong from Chiang Mai and Charnvit Kasetsiri.

Their open letter was issued yesterday to mark the 64th birthday of
Burma's democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi. They called on Asean
secretary-general Surin Pitsuwan to suspend Burma as an Asean member
country for one year until Mrs Suu Kyi is released from jail.

She is being tried by the junta and held in Rangoon's Insein prison on
charges of violating her house arrest after an American man swam to her
lakeside home.

They also urged other Asean member countries to expel Rangoon from the
grouping if the Burmese regime fails to bring about democracy and
political reform in the country within three years.

But Aung Zaw, editor of Irrawaddy magazine, said despite international
pressure on the junta over Mrs Suu Kyi, a fine-tuned approach is also
needed.

UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon needed to rethink the organisation's pol
icy towards Burma and take a more holistic approach, he said.

''The international community should realise Aung San Suu Kyi has never
asked for her own release but the release of all political prisoners and a
real political dialogue in her country, no matter how and where she is
locked up or for how long,'' said the Chiang Mai-based editor.

The UN, he said, needed a skilful and talented negotiator, and to do more
homework and consultation with regional governments and various pressure
groups, to improve their strategy.

Aung Naing Oo, a Chiang Mai-based independent analyst, said a long-term
realistic and sustainable international strategy towards Burma had yet to
be developed beyond dealing with next year's election. If the present
approach continued Burma would be reviled and isolated like North Korea
which would only benefit the junta and put Asean in an even weaker
position to effect change.

Thailand needed to rethink its Burma policy, taking a more balanced
approach, said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, director of Chulalongkorn
University's Institute of Security and International Studies.

''Burma needs a smooth transition from military to civilian government and
Thailand certainly does not want to see the neighbouring country become a
Yugoslavia,'' he said.

____________________________________

June 22, Xinhua
Myanmar to host ASEAN meeting on combating transnational crime

Myanmar will host the 9th meeting of senior officials of the Association
of the Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on combating transnational crime in
the country's capital Nay Pyi Taw next month, the local Weekly Eleven
journal reported Monday.

The three-day meeting at the Office of the Myanmar War Veterans '
Association is scheduled from July 1 to 3. It will be attended by
representatives of dialogue partners from China, Japan, South Korea,
Australia, Russia, the European Union, the United Nations Office on Drug
and Crime (UNODC) and some other international non- governmental
organizations.

Meanwhile, Myanmar has been stepping up efforts in combating human
trafficking. It signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Thailand
in April this year as part of the country's cooperation with neighbors in
the fight.

The areas of cooperation under the MoU cover combating all aspects of
human trafficking, including prevention, protection, rehabilitation,
reintegration, law enforcement, justice and developing and implementing
joint action between the two countries.

Myanmar has commended the achievements of Myanmar and Thailand along with
countries of the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) under the commit MoU as
well as other regional mechanism which addresses the human trafficking
problem, while Thailand is making arrangements to implement the plan of
action by drafting under the MoU and combating human trafficking problem
in cooperation with government departments, non-governmental organizations
and United Nations agencies.

Neighboring countries, with which Myanmar is cooperating, include China,
India and Bangladesh, Thailand as well as the Russian Federation and
Vietnam.

After the promulgation of Myanmar's Prevention of Trafficking in Persons
Law in 2005, the taking of punitive action against traffickers has stopped
many cases of human trafficking, the authorities said, adding that
measures are also being taken across the country to save those who fall
prey to human traffickers and to enable the victims to integrate back with
their society and to rehabilitate them.

Myanmar is drafting a national-level five-year plan of eliminating human
trade to step up combating the crime. The plan covers five sectors --
cooperation through the policy, prevention, taking action, protection of
the victims and capacity building, according to the Central Committee for
Prevention of Trafficking in Persons.

In March 2004, Myanmar joined the United Nations Convention Against
Transnational Organized Crime and Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish
Trafficking in Persons Especially Women.

The country also signed a memorandum of understanding of six- member
Greater Mekong Subregion against trafficking in persons in October 2004.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

June 22, Huffington Post (US)
North Korea ship suspected of carrying missiles to Burma – Jae-Soon Chang

North Korea boasted of being a "proud nuclear power" and threatened Monday
to harm the U.S. if attacked as tensions mounted over a possible crackdown
on exports of suspected missile parts from the North.

President Barack Obama said the U.S. is ready to cope with "any
contingencies" involving North Korea and vowed not to "reward belligerence
and provocation."

South Korea's YTN news network reported Sunday that a U.S. Navy destroyer
tailing a North Korean ship suspected of carrying missiles and related
parts was headed toward Myanmar in what could be the first test of new
U.N. sanctions against the North over its recent nuclear test.

The sanctions _ punishment for an underground nuclear test North Korea
conducted May 25 _ firm up an earlier arms embargo against North Korea and
authorize ship searches in an attempt to thwart the regime's nuclear and
ballistic missile ambitions.

On Monday, North Korea's main Rodong Sinmun newspaper called it "nonsense"
to say the country is a threat to the U.S., and instead claimed Washington
was the one threatening the North. The paper also warned in a commentary
that the country is prepared to strike back if attacked.

"As long as our country has become a proud nuclear power, the U.S. should
take a correct look at whom it is dealing with," the editorial said. "It
would be a grave mistake for the U.S. to think it can remain unhurt if it
ignites the fuse of war on the Korean peninsula."

The Rodong Sinmun also denounced Obama's recent pledge to defend and
protect South Korea _ even promising to keep Seoul "under the U.S. nuclear
umbrella" _ as an attempt to attack the North with atomic bombs. Obama
made the commitment in a joint statement after a summit last week with
South Korea's President Lee Myung-bak.

North Korea calls its nuclear program a deterrent against the U.S., which
Pyongyang routinely accuses of plotting to topple the communist regime.
The U.S., which has 28,500 troops in South Korea, has said it has no such
intentions, and has no nuclear weapons on the Korean peninsula.

Obama said the U.S. is prepared for any North Korean provocation,
including the regime's reported threat to test-launch a long-range missile
toward Hawaii.

Japanese media have reported that the North Koreans appear to be preparing
for a long-range test planned sometime around July 4, the Independence Day
holiday. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has ordered additional protections
for Hawaii as a precaution.

"This administration _ and our military _ is fully prepared for any
contingencies," Obama said Friday during an interview with CBS News' "The
Early Show" to be broadcast Monday.

"I don't want to speculate on hypotheticals," Obama said. "But I want ...
to give assurances to the American people that the t's are crossed and the
i's are dotted in terms of what might happen."

A North Korean cargo ship, the Kang Nam, is expected to travel to Myanmar
via Singapore, YTN said, citing an unidentified intelligence source in
South Korea.

Myanmar's military government, which faces an arms embargo from the United
States and the European Union, reportedly has bought weapons from the
North in the past.

Two U.S. officials said Thursday that the U.S. military had begun tracking
the ship, which left a North Korean port on Wednesday.

One official said it was uncertain what the Kang Nam was carrying but that
it had been involved in weapons proliferation before. Both spoke on
condition of anonymity in order to discuss intelligence.

A senior U.S. military official told The Associated Press on Friday that a
Navy ship, the USS John S. McCain, is relatively close to the North Korean
vessel but had no orders to intercept it under the Security Council
resolution and had not requested that authority. The official spoke on
condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

The U.S. ship, a guided missile destroyer, is named after the grandfather
and father of former U.S. presidential candidate Sen. John McCain. Both
were admirals.

McCain said Sunday that the U.S. should board the Kang Nam even without
North Korean permission if hard evidence shows it is carrying missiles or
other cargo in violation of U.N. resolutions.

"I think we should board it. It's going to contribute to the proliferation
of weapons of mass destruction to rogue nations that pose a direct threat
to the United States," he said on CBS' "Face the Nation."

____________________________________

June 22, Mizzima News
Burmese activists join SAARC conference – Salai Pi Pi

Two New Delhi-based Burmese pro-democracy activists are participating in a
five-day South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC)
conference, which began on Sunday in the northwestern Indian state of
Rajasthan.

Speaking to Mizzima on Monday, Sakjan Kumar, a Central Committee member
from the National Human Centric People Movement (NHCPM), organizer of the
conference, said two Burmese activists - Salong and Tialte – had been
invited to the conference focusing on global warming, environment,
dehumanization and globalization.

“Two delegates from Myanmar [Burma] are also present here. Formally,
Myanmar [Burma] is not a member of the SAARC,” explained Sakjan Kumar.

Sakjan Kumar said though Burma is not a formal member of SAARC, the
grouping considers Burma an important country in equal standing to that of
Pakistan, Bangladesh and other South Asian countries.

During the conference, a social activist from Bangladesh condemned SAARC
members for their silence over the plight of the Rohingya, a Muslim
minority in Burma’s northwestern region who have fled in large numbers to
Bangladesh to escape discrimination and human rights abuses committed by
the Burmese military.

Similarly, Gulshan Sharma, a student leader from India’s state of Jammu
and Kashmir, also criticized SAARC members for their silence over the
Burmese junta’s ongoing trial against pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu
Kyi.

Burma’s military regime officially applied for full SAARC membership in
May 2008. However, the application is still being considered and the
government is currently restricted to observer status.

Meanwhile, Dr. Tint Swe, Information Minister of the Burmese exile
government National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma (NCGUB),
said Burma applied for membership to SAARC as it has, in recent months,
received gradual pressure from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN), of which Burma is a member, over developments in the country.

“It is an act by which the Burmese regime is indirectly telling ASEAN that
if they keep on pressuring them, they have another group to join,” Tint
Swe told Mizzima on Monday.

Tint Swe also holds the view that the relationship between Burma and South
Asian countries is based solely on national interest.

Tint Swe said representatives of Pakistan, Nepal and other countries that
support democracy movements should raise their voices at the conference in
concern for Burma and to press SAARC to secure the release of Aung San Suu
Kyi.

Sakjan Kumar said that Burma is important to SAARC because of its
strategic location between South Asia, China and Southeast Asia.

“In my understanding, Myanmar [Burma] must be a member of SAARC. We want
Myanmar [Burma] to be included in the people of SAARC,” added Kumar.

SAARC was established in 1985 by the Heads of State of Bangladesh, Bhutan,
India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Later, Afghanistan also
joined the grouping.

Earlier in March, SAARC invited New Delhi-based Burmese poets and
journalists to a literature conference held in Agra, the historic Indian
city home to the Taj Mahal.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

June 22, Mizzima News
U.N. envoy en route to Rangoon ahead of boss's visit – Larry Jagan

United Nations Special Envoy Ibrahim Gambari is scheduled to arrive in
Burma later this week to pave the way for the proposed visit of U.N.
Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon in early July.

The U.N. diplomat’s trip is expected to start on Friday, according to a
Burmese government official. “It will be a short visit to discuss the
national reconciliation process and make arrangements for Mr. Ban’s
visit,” the official said on condition of anonymity.

U.N. officials, when contacted, were not prepared to discuss the visit,
only saying that nothing can be confirmed at this stage. Other sources,
though, said Gambari’s trip was already being planned and was very likely
to go ahead as scheduled. Several diplomats in Rangoon told Mizzima that
while nothing is yet confirmed, they expect to see the U.N. Envoy arrive
towards the end of the week.

“If Ban Ki-moon is coming to Burma in July then Gambari – as his Special
Envoy – would have to lay the groundwork for the visit,” a Western
diplomat in Rangoon told Mizzima, declining to be identified.

Asian diplomatic sources believe that Ban will travel to Burma from June
30th to July 2nd immediately after his scheduled visit to Tokyo to meet
government leaders and leading business people. His itinerary after that
is undecided but a visit to Burma is a "possibility," U.N. spokeswoman
Michelle Montas told journalists in New York on Friday.

Publicly, U.N. officials will only confirm the Secretary General has yet
to make up his mind. Privately, however, many diplomats who have good
contact with Ban have told Mizzima over the last two weeks that he is very
keen to go. The UN chief has been invited to visit Burma in July,
according to Burmese government officials who say they have yet to receive
a reply to the invitation.

It is expected the U.N. Envoy is going to be carrying the formal response
with him – in the form of a letter from Ban Ki-moon to General Than Shwe,
the junta’s top general. As yet it is unclear whether Gambari will meet
the senior general this time – as on many previous visits the junta leader
has refused to see him.

The U.N. boss is unlikely to go to Burma without some kind of offer from
the top general. Most diplomats in Rangoon believe the Secretary General’s
expectations will be laid out during Gambari’s trip. Two weeks ago Ban
Ki-moon told journalists at U.N. headquarters in New York: "When the time
is appropriate and conditions are ripe, as I said many times, I'm ready to
visit Myanmar [Burma]. I'm working on that now."

Ban Ki-moon last visited Burma in late May 2008 in the wake of the
devastation caused by Cyclone Nargis and chaired the donors’ meeting in
Rangoon which provided crucial aid for Burma’s cyclone victims and the
country’s subsequent reconstruction plans.

During that visit the U.N. Secretary General had a one-hour meeting with
Than Shwe in which there was reportedly a frank and friendly discussion,
according to Burmese military sources. Officially, Ban Ki-moon has
insisted that only humanitarian issues were discussed during that trip as
that was the precondition for the visit.

However during their talk Than Shwe asked the UN chief what he thought
about the country’s “roadmap to democracy.” And the Secretary General
seized on the opportunity to urge the junta leader to make the national
reconciliation process transparent and inclusive – iterating that the
National League for Democracy must be allowed to contest the elections in
2010 for them to be credible. He also told General Than Shwe that all
political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi, should be released as
soon as possible, according to U.N. officials close to Ban Ki-moon.

As the discussion came to an end, according to someone at the meeting,
Than Shwe slapped his thigh and said this was the best and most frank
conversation he has ever had with a foreigner. Ban Ki-moon is hoping that
he will be able personally to build on the rapport that was established
between the two men during their exchange last May.

Apart from personally taking his boss’s response to the generals, Gambari
also now has the monumental task of preparing what he often in the past
has called the “modalities of the visit.” Ban Ki-moon of course has
already made the key issues clear: "Promoting democratization, including
the release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners, has
been one of my top priorities and it will continue to be my top priority,"
Ban recently told journalists.

Of course both Gambari and Ban are likely to be visiting Burma during the
ongoing trial of detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, also
scheduled to resume on Friday. She has been charged with breaking the
terms of her house arrest last month by allowing an American to swim
across the lake behind her house and permitting him to come inside and
providing him with food and drink. If convicted she faces five years in
jail.

Her fate may decide whether Ban does continue on to Burma after Japan.
Gambari is expected to discuss this with the junta’s leaders on this
visit. He is also likely to be looking at the upcoming general election,
the first since 1990, scheduled for next year. Another regime concession
may be publication of the crucial electoral law. “We expect Gambari to be
the first to be shown the document that has been drawn up months, if not a
year, ago,” said a Western diplomat based in Rangoon.

Gambari will fly on to Tokyo early next week after his short visit to
Burma to convey the junta’s response to the U.N. chief, according to U.N.
insiders. While this may be Gambari’s eighth and final visit to Burma as
the U.N. Special Envoy to the troubled Southeast Asian country, it may yet
prove to be his most crucial.

____________________________________

June 21, Itar-Tass (Russia)
Moscow hopes for an unbiased trial of Suu Kyi

The Russian Foreign Ministry objects to political and economic pressure on
Myanmar and hopes for an unbiased trial of opposition leader Suu Kyi, the
ministry’s information and press department said on Sunday.

Russia is watching “the efforts of the Myanmar government to achieve peace
and national concord,” the department said. “We believe that Myanmar will
ensure the fulfillment of the reform program, primarily the holding of
parliamentary elections in due time [in 2010].”

Moscow “opposes attempts to internationalize the internal situation in
Myanmar, because it does not endanger peace and security in the region and
the world at large. In our opinion, the political and economic pressure on
that country is counterproductive, as it enhances isolationist feelings of
the Myanmar military and exacerbates the socioeconomic position of
citizens,” the department said.

“We see no reasons why the UN Security Council should discuss Myanmar. At
the same time, we call on Myanmar for greater openness and cooperation
with the international community, as well as for closer relations with the
mission of Special Representative of the UN Secretary General Ibrahim
Gambari. We are confident that this negotiating mechanism is useful in
building up mutual understanding and confidence between Myanmar and the
world,” the department said.

Russia hopes that the trial of “Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi
will be unbiased, strictly comply with national laws and humanitarian
standards, and take into account the international opinion,” the
department said.

The Nobel Prize winner’s trial began this May at Yangon’s Insein prison,
where she had been transferred from home arrest. If found guilty, she may
be sentenced to five years of custody for breaching home arrest
restrictions and meeting with a U.S. citizen without authorization.

Several days ago ASEAN urged Myanmar to stop the prosecution of the
opposition leader and to release her from custody. The European Union
sided with the demand and called for further political activity of Suu Kyi
and larger international pressure on the Myanmar authorities aimed to
promote massive democratic transformations. U.S. President Barack Obama
also demanded the immediate release of the Myanmar opposition leader.

The National League for Democracy led by Suu Kyi won the majority of seats
in the national parliament in 1990, but the military invalidated election
results and started persecution of Suu Kyi and her supporters. For all
these years Suu Kyi has almost permanently stayed under home arrest.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

June 22, Irrawaddy
Whys and Suu Kyi – Kyaw Zwa Moe

Several “whys” woke me up this morning on the 64th birthday of Aung San
Suu Kyi, who would wake up this morning to the sounds of prisoners’ iron
shackles and the harsh shouts of wardens in the Insein Prison compound.

The first “why” was: Why have the powerful Burmese generals who control
400,000 soldiers detained Suu Kyi for more than 13 of the past 19 years?

The answer is simple. They are afraid of the 64-year-old Nobel Peace Prize
winner, who now represents democracy to people not only in Burma but
around the world.

Though she has been mentally and physically held down by the junta since
1988 when she dedicated her life to restore democracy in Burma, Suu Kyi
has proved how strong, resilient and durable she is. Recently, she has
even become more threatening to the generals.

Why are they so afraid?

Basically, she represents the truth. “Truth is a powerful weapon,” she
said once. “And truth—like anything that is powerful—can be frightening or
reassuring, depending on which side you are on.”

“If you’re on the side of truth, it’s very reassuring—you have its
protection. But if you’re on the side of untruth—then it’s very
frightening,” she said in the book The Voice of Hope, based mainly on
interviews with her after her release from her first house arrest in 1995,

The junta is on the side of untruth. One of its big lies was the 1990
election, the results of which were simply discarded by the generals after
Suu Kyi’s party, National League for Democracy, won by a landslide. The
people gave her a huge mandate which, in the junta’s eyes, was something
to fear.

The generals broke their promise after the election to convene a people’s
assembly and hand over power to the winner. Voters will never forget that
lie.

Why is she so respected as a leader?

She has practiced what she believes even when dealing with one of the most
cruel and cunning regimes in the world: “Honesty is the best policy.” To
that, however, some detractors say, “She is saint, but not politician.”

Suu Kyi once said: “Political integrity means just plain honesty in
politics. One of the most important things is never to deceive the people.
Any politician who deceives the people either for the sake of his party or
because he imagines it’s for the sake of people, is lacking in political
integrity.”

Even after the brutal treatment of the past 21 years, she still applies
that policy of “honesty,” and her dedication and conviction to restore
democracy has never wavered.

Her words have touched the Burmese people, and her actions have impressed
them, proving to the people she is a true leader.

Why is she still relevant, even though she has been forced off-stage in
terms of political activity?

Even during her trial, which was called “an absurd mockery of justice” by
Britain Prime Minister Gordon Brown, she again raised the issue of
national reconciliation which is the only way to bring about peaceful
change in the country.

“There could be many opportunities for national reconciliation if all
parties so wished,” she told diplomats she met in Insein Prison in May.
“It was not too late for something good to come out of this unfortunate
incident.”

Obviously, what she said showed that she has been thinking of the
development of the country. When she got an opportunity to make an
important point, she used it.

She first began calling for dialogue soon after she became active in
politics in 1988. The international community unanimously supports
dialogue, but the junta is deaf.

Many people in Burma believe that she is the only capable and trustworthy
leader who can deal with the generals in a national reconciliation
process. Not only that, she is the best person to reconcile with the
diverse ethnic groups and reform economic and development policies, and
she is a leader who can deal with regional and world leaders.

The last “why” was: Why has the international community taken so long to
obtain her freedom?

That is a big question. There are several factors, such as the world has
never been united when it comes to a Burma policy. Also, in the past two
decades, many world leaders have become inured to the phrase “Free Suu
Kyi” and failed to take action.

Gordon Brown renewed the call for the world to act in his article on her
birthday. He noted three points: “I have been struck by how Burma’s
neighbors have led the world community in calling for Aung San Suu Kyi’s
release. We need to translate this outrage into ongoing political pressure
for change.”

Also, he said, “We need the UN Security Council to reinforce its calls for
Suu Kyi’s release and to support the secretary-general’s efforts to bring
about political progress through an early visit to Burma.”

He continued, “We should impose a new set of tough sanctions that target
the regime’s economic interests. We will be pushing for stronger European
Union action in that regard. Such a step would hit the business interests
of the generals and their cronies.”

Brown’s points have all been repeated many times, which shows that the
world has been good at talking about what to do, but lacking in achieving
results.

Today is Suu Kyi 64th birthday, and the leaders of the world, including
Brown, have again called for her immediate release and suggested many ways
to deal with the regime.

But, again, we’ll have to wait and see. We will know if the world has
succeeded in taking effective actions to win her freedom by her next
birthday in 2010.

____________________________________

June 22, Newsweek
'The lady' and the tramp; the Missouri misfit who helped bring down
Burma's future – Tony Dokoupil


For years, John Yettaw had experienced visions that warned him of events
to come. Sometimes the Missouri resident ignored them and came to regret
it. This time, though, he intended to act. In early 2009, the 53-year-old
told friends and family that he had seen himself as a man sent by God to
protect the life of a beloved foreign leader. He arranged for his kids to
stay with a friend, borrowed money to buy a plane ticket and printed new
business cards, as if launching a new life. He seemed calm at first,
spending hours at the local Hardee's, where he used the free Wi-Fi to
download music--Gladys Knight, Michael Bubla--and Mormon sermons from Salt
Lake City. But as his flight date approached, he also showed signs of
nervousness. He broke down on the shoulder of his best friend, and didn't
sleep at all on his last night at home.

Sometime after 3 a.m. on April 15, he woke his son Brian, 17, and his
three younger children for a family prayer, and piled them into a minivan
for the hourlong drive to the airport. Unlike the backpack tour Yettaw had
taken through Asia late last year, this trip would propel him into the
heart of Burma's repressive regime and an ongoing crackdown on dissidents
that has drawn condemnation from Barack Obama and United Nations
Secretary--General Ban Ki-moon, among others. On the 20th, he flew to
Bangkok, where he spent a week waiting for his Burmese visa and sending
whimsical e-mails home, including a final cheerful message: "Pray. Study
peace. Live calmness. Kindness toward everyone. Love and pray."

The next word the family got regarding Yettaw came in a 5 a.m. phone call
from the consulate at the U.S. Embassy in Rangoon. He had been arrested
just past dawn on May 6, seized as he kicked through the soupy brown
waters of Inya Lake, a man-made reservoir some four miles from his hotel.
He had made an unauthorized and uninvited two-day visit to the weathered
colonial-style home of Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Prize-winning leader of
Burma's pro-democracy movement. Suu Kyi says that she asked Yettaw to
leave, but relented when he complained of hunger and exhaustion. "The
Lady," as locals call her, trounced opponents in the country's last open
election in 1990, but the junta refused to recognize the results, and has
kept her under arrest for 13 of the past 19 years for trying to unseat the
regime. She was due to be released on May 27, ahead of next year's
landmark national elections--the first in two decades. But now Suu Kyi,
the Oxford-educated daughter of Burmese revolutionary Aung San, faces five
more years for violating the terms of her imprisonment and breaking the
country's law forbidding unregistered guests from staying overnight.

Yettaw, too, is on trial for charges including "illegal swimming" and
breaching security laws; judging from the line of questioning in court,
Burmese authorities suspect he intended to help Suu Kyi escape. At the
start of the legal proceedings last month, they presented two black
chadors, two long skirts, three pairs of sunglasses, six colored pencils,
flares, flashlights and a pair of pliers as evidence of a getaway plot.
Yettaw was also carrying empty jugs he used for buoyancy, and a camera
wrapped in plastic with a picture of the improvised flippers he used for
the mile-long swim. Since his arrest, he has been held in Insein
(pronounced "insane") Prison. If convicted, he faces as many as five years
behind bars--perhaps more if he is found guilty of trying to spring Suu
Kyi. Both he and his host (Suu Kyi's lawyer says, "This is a political
case, not a criminal one") have pleaded not guilty. "He had no criminal
intent," Yettaw's lawyer, Khin Maung Oo, told newsweek, adding that the
only charge he should face is "lurking house-trespass," a lesser crime on
the books in Burma. "He has no relationship with anything political. His
only mission was to save her."

A troubled dreamer who lives down two miles of gravel road in Missouri's
backwoods and didn't have a passport until last spring, Yettaw is an
unlikely protagonist on the international political stage. Why he made his
move, and who, if anyone, encouraged it are questions clouded by
conspiracy theories and confounding reports about the man and his motives.
The junta believes that antigovernment activists used Yettaw to embarrass
its leaders, while Suu Kyi's supporters say that the government used the
quixotic American as a pretense for keeping their best-known critic under
house arrest rather than risk igniting the opposition ahead of the 2010
elections.

Yettaw's friends and family tell a different story, describing a
well-intentioned and highly spiritual person whose struggles with
alcoholism and mental illness may have pushed him into history's path. "I
don't think he's well," says Yvonne Yettaw, the third of his four
wives--echoing the sentiments of other loved ones who believe that he may
suffer from untreated bipolar and posttraumatic stress disorders. The only
problem is neither Yvonne nor anybody else seems to fully understand the
often secretive father of seven. As a result, they offer contradictory,
incomplete and occasionally fantastical ideas about what Yettaw was up to.

Betty, Yettaw's fourth and current wife, believes he was compelled by God,
but also wanted to interview Suu Kyi for a book he is writing about how
people recover from trauma. ("If they let her go, he'd never get to see
her," Betty says.) Ex-wife Yvonne says the Burma trip was about business:
her ex-husband and Suu Kyi, she heard incorrectly, had coauthored a book
together. And a close friend of Yettaw's--who requested anonymity owing to
the sensitivity of the family's situation--says that John uncovered
Burmese (and Chinese) state secrets that compelled him to act. "If they
knew, they'd kill him," the friend says ominously. Brian and Carley, his
20-year-old daughter, say their father was going to warn Suu Kyi that her
life was in danger following a tip-off from God--an account that roughly
matches Yettaw's testimony that "terrorists" were going to assassinate her
and blame the government.

The facts of Yettaw's life are also murky, even to his family. After years
of his erratic behavior and unsatisfying explanations, they have come to
accept him the way he is--bighearted but unsteady. This is what they've
been told (although aside from Yettaw's birthplace and his military
records, little can be independently verified): he and a twin sister were
born in a Detroit housing project in 1955--the youngest of five siblings
and the only ones to survive into adulthood (an older sister died in a
swimming accident, a brother committed suicide in a mental hospital and
another sister was born with severe handicaps and died in an institution).
As a 7- or 8-year-old, he has told family, he was molested by a volunteer
"big brother" after his father left home, before his mother's drinking
cost her custody. Sent to live with relatives in California, Yettaw ran
away from home at 16 and lived in his car until he was old enough to join
the Army in 1973. His family believes that Yettaw did a combat stint
somewhere in Asia during the Vietnam War; he told them that his time there
brought on bouts of PTSD. The military's National Personnel Records
Center, however, says that he spent 10 months in Germany before being
discharged in 1974 after little more than a year of service.

Back in the United States, an unplanned pregnancy led to a quickie
marriage at 20, a divorce two years later and a decade of drinking,
according to Yvonne. Yettaw married again in his mid-20s, only to divorce
seven years later. He met Yvonne, the mother of six of his seven children,
at a church singles event shortly after his conversion to Mormonism in his
early 30s. Yettaw liked the church's belief in conversions for the dead
because he wanted to reunite with his whole family in the afterlife, she
says. Around the same time, he experienced the first in a series of
visions: a dream that his father, whom Yettaw had not heard from since
John was 2, was in Falcon, Mo. Remarkably, he was in fact living in
Falcon, and John soon moved Yvonne and his children nearby. Things looked
up for a while. But over the next few years, personal tragedies pulled
Yettaw's life in strange new directions, and ultimately toward Burma.

After a house fire and a messy divorce from Yvonne, Yettaw found himself
living in a trailer on his property, where a veritable Noah's Ark of trash
began to accumulate on the lawn: two broken-down cars, two derelict
trucks, two rusted satellite dishes and a pair of portable basketball
hoops that still stand in the tall, tick-infested grass. Debt began to
snowball, as Yettaw pursued increasingly impractical dreams. He started
driving a USA Tours bus in part to ferry soldiers from their homes to
nearby Fort Leonard Wood, began work on a 6,000-square-foot turreted home
and started putting up drifters in a local hotel.

A darker side also emerged. He put his thumb through a man's eye during a
fight in a bar parking lot, say Brian and Yvonne, and, according to police
records, spat in the face of a woman who accused him of taking her car.
(Although no charges were filed, Yettaw admitted to the spitting, and the
woman won a restraining order against him.) In 1997 he graduated cum laude
from Drury University with a triple major in psychology, criminal justice
and biology, only to be forced from a doctoral program at the Springfield,
Mo.-based Forest Institute's School of Professional Psychology in 2007.
According to family, he was "blacklisted" for exploding at a professor
during a field trip to an area mental hospital. (Forest officials declined
to comment, citing privacy regulations.) Determined to get back on track,
he was set to speak with school officials at the institute on the very day
a far worse crisis engulfed the family.

Before dawn on Aug. 2, 2007, 17-year-old Clint Yettaw was speeding on his
Yamaha 650--a bike his father got him for his birthday the previous
summer. Clint hit a deer at such a fatal velocity, according to police,
that he split the animal in two. Yettaw blamed himself for failing to act
on a premonition of Clint's death a few weeks earlier. He buried his son
in the front yard, in a plain grave surrounded by cinder blocks. It was a
pivotal event for Yettaw, who soon decided he needed a break. "He was
like, 'Get me away from here'," says Betty.

In May 2008, he and Brian headed to Asia for a six-month tour, where
Yettaw's fascination with Suu Kyi began. After Brian returned to school in
early September, Yettaw headed to Mae Sot, a relaxed and slightly untidy
Thai town known for drugs, human trafficking and other shady activities.
Located on the Moei River across from the Burmese town of Myawaddy, Mae
Sot is filled with agents of the Burmese military who mix in with the
general population. "There's all kinds of intrigue going on," says Aung
Zaw, editor of The Irrawaddy, an expatriate Burmese magazine published in
Chiang Mai, in northern Thailand.

Yettaw knocked around town for a few weeks, taking a second-floor room in
a cheap hotel. He also picked up a motorcycle and a Thai companion,
according to the hotel owner, who ate with his Missouri guest almost every
day. It was then--late September through early November 2008--that Yettaw
began to get political, says the owner. He "talked about Aung San Suu Kyi
and said Myanmar [the name the junta gave Burma] would never be a true
democracy without her. He said he really needed to do something to better
bring the world's attention to The Lady and Myanmar." Yettaw was making
the rounds of a few NGOs in Thailand, trying unsuccessfully to get them to
accept him as a kind of adjunct staff member, according to a relief worker
who, like others interviewed for this story, requested anonymity out of
fear of government retaliation. Another relief worker described Yettaw as
"delusional," "unstable" and "hyperactive." "He's a nice person, well
intentioned; he's not going to hurt you," the person says, but "he was
saying, 'God told me this; God told me that'." It's hard to know for sure
what happened next. It's possible that Yettaw acted alone, or else took an
innocent conversation to be something more. But some time in October, he
told the hotel owner about another dream, a vision of himself as a
champion of the downtrodden. Then he disappeared, leaving behind an unpaid
bill. He resurfaced in Bangkok on Oct. 27 to collect a Burmese visa,
government records show, and flew to Rangoon on Nov. 7.

Three weeks later, on Nov. 30, according to court testimony, he made the
first of his two attempts to reach Suu Kyi's house by swimming across the
lake, but was turned away by her two on-site companions. At home in
Missouri the next month, he told family that he had been captured at
gunpoint on his way back from her house, but was released after
authorities bought his story about having been fishing. (Burmese
authorities have apparently not raised this point at the trial, and would
not comment further.) Upset that he had been so close to Suu Kyi without
having met her, he began mulling a second trip almost immediately.

With Suu Kyi now on trial, spray-painted messages of sympathy have popped
up on walls around Rangoon. Behind closed doors there are rumblings of
support for the woman who remains a symbol of hope to the 47 million
people of Burma, and a million Burmese refugees in exile. But few of her
supporters have spoken out publicly about her, perhaps mindful of the
regime's brutal means of quelling protest.

The locals are less reticent about Yettaw. To some, he's a heroic
idealist; to others, he's a dangerous imbecile who has jeopardized Suu
Kyi's freedom and the possibility of democracy. Htay Aung, a former
Burmese political prisoner in exile in Thailand, says Yettaw made "the
complications more complicated. Now we don't know what's going to happen
to Burma."

Verdicts are expected later this month. Yettaw, for his part, "is prepared
for any punishment they impose on him," according to his lawyer. In
prison, with two Burmese cellmates, he is refusing food in an effort to
give himself another vision. He often cries at the thought of "suffering,
war and cruelty" in the world. But at the same time, the lawyer says, he
is "very happy." "He knows very well that Suu Kyi is in trouble. But that
is for the time being. Instead of losing her life, he saved her--this is
what he thinks."

Back home in Missouri, the Yettaw family doesn't know what's going to
happen to him, either. The details coming out in court puzzle his loved
ones, who say Yettaw's previous aquatic adventures had been limited to a
front-yard wading pool. "It's getting pretty bizarre," says Betty of the
bundle of items her husband allegedly took with him across the lake. "That
doesn't sound like Dad," Brian adds. Although Betty says she's "very
worried" because "these guys play hardball," there is little that anyone
in the family can do, other than monitor the case's progress via media
reports and updates from American diplomatic staff in the region.

They are doing their best to get on with life. Later this month the three
youngest children plan to fly to California to spend the summer with their
mother, Yvonne, while Carley and Brian stay in Missouri, fielding text
messages and questions from curious friends: "OMG, I want details" and
"Crazy. What's up with your dad?"

"It's complicated," they answer.

With Lennox Samuels in Thailand and F. De Burgo-Naughton in Burma