BurmaNet News, July 21, 2009

[Editor]

July 21, 2009, Issue #3758

QUOTE OF THE DAY
"We know that there are also growing concerns about military cooperation
between North Korea and Burma, which we take seriously
.It would be
destabilizing for the region. It would pose a direct threat to Burma's
neighbors." – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton

INSIDE BURMA
Irrawaddy: Visa backlog holds up Irrawaddy Delta relief work
Independent (UK): Gambling epidemic snares Burma's poor

ON THE BORDER
Khonumthung News: Increase in school dropouts in border areas of Chin state

BUSINESS / TRADE
Russian Information Agency Novosti: Moscow stands by Myanmar nuclear
cooperation deal

ASEAN
Bangkok Post: Burma key to fate of Asean
VOA: Indonesia says Burma must release democracy leader for elections to
be credible

REGIONAL
AP: Is Burma going nuclear?

INTERNATIONAL
New York Times: U.S. worried over Myanmar-N. Korea arms links
AFP: Gandhi trust awards Aung San Suu Kyi peace prize

OPINION / OTHER
New Straits Times (Malaysia): Yangon's actions make light of human rights
body




____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

July 21, Irrawaddy
Visa backlog holds up Irrawaddy Delta relief work – Wai Moe

The international post-cyclone relief effort in the Irrawaddy delta is
under pressure because of a delay in granting visas for more than 200 aid
workers, according to a senior official with the Tripartite Core Group
(TCG).

William Sabandar, special envoy of the Asean Secretary-General for Post
Nargis Recovery in Burma, told The Irrawaddy that although relief workers
were still being allowed into the delta area their numbers had been cut
because of a backlog in granting visas.

“There’s a backlog in the granting of more than 200 visas,” he said. “We
are working on trying to resolve the situation.”

Sabandar—who has experience of post-tsunami work in Aceh, Indonesia, said
the greatest difficult in working in Burma was building trust.

He said he raised the matter of the backlog with Burmese Foreign Minister
Maj-Gen Nyan Win during a working dinner in Phuket on Sunday. “He
understands the issue and he would like to help.”

Relief workers in Burma say they have been experiencing difficulties since
Deputy Foreign Minister Kyaw Thu, chairman of the TCG, was transferred to
an inactive position, as chairman of the ministerial-level Civil Service
Selection and Training Board.

After the junta faced international outrage over the trial of Aung San Suu
Kyi’s began in May, the activities and visa processing of relief workers
had been experiencing difficulties, said a European relief worker who
spoke on condition of anonymity.

Two books on Cyclone Nargis were launched at the Asean session: A Bridge
to Recovery: Asean’s Response to Cyclone Nargis and Myanmar: Life after
Nargis.

According to Myanmar: Life after Nargis, the Burmese regime had missed a
crucial opportunity to represent itself appropriately in the eyes of the
Burmese people and the international community. The book is published by
the Asean Secretariat and the Singapore-based Institute of Southeast Asian
Studies.

“The Myanmar Government missed another opportunity to shore up its
legitimacy,” said the authors of the book, saying Nargis victims had
expressed their frustration at the regime’s delay in accepting
international assistance.

At a donor meeting in Bangkok in February, the TCG announced its three
year recovery plan for Nargis victims. The plan has a proposed budget of
US $ 691 million.
However, the Asean Secretariat says in the book, A Bridge to Recovery:
Asean’s Response to Cyclone Nargis: “Donor support pledged to date needs
turning into firm commitments”.

“The recovery experience after other disasters has shown that the
receiving of international assistance depends strongly on the
effectiveness of the coordination and implementation structure in place,”
the Asean Secretariat says in the book.

International donors are reportedly disappointed at the level of
corruption in dealing with funds, as well as the lack of direct engagement
between donors and the junta’s senior officials.

____________________________________

July 21, Independent (UK)
Gambling epidemic snares Burma's poor – Phoebe Kennedy

As the clock ticks towards noon, the Sky Cafe in Rangoon's shabby Daubon
Township starts to fill up. Young women carrying babies, men from the
bicycle repair shop across the road, and old ladies smoking cheroots take
their places on the small plastic chairs. By 11.55am, the wooden shack is
packed, and a waiter revs up the generator to power the big TV in the
corner. In an atmosphere of anticipation, the crowd is waiting for the
Bangkok stock exchange price at its lunchtime close.

These are not people who have ever owned shares in anything. They are day
labourers, hawkers, and low-ranking civil servants with earnings of around
$3 (£1.80) a day. Their interest is not in the performance of the stock
market, but in the random, final two digits of the share price, on which
most bet at least half of their daily wages.

Gambling is an epidemic spreading unchecked among Burma's poor. This is a
country with no political freedom, few economic choices and little hope.
Its military leaders have kept democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi locked up
for most of the last 20 years, and have presided over an economic slump
while neighbouring countries have prospered. In the crowded townships of
the former capital Rangoon, in decaying market towns and impoverished
rural villages, everyone, it seems, is trying to bet their way out of a
miserable existence.

Kyaw Kyaw works for his family business, repairing motors and generators
on the ground floor of their house. For him, betting is something to look
forward to: "Twice a day I have hope." The 35-year-old gambles on the "two
digits" lottery both lunchtime and evening, giving a dollar each time to
the saleswomen who go door to door taking bets. These women take a 10 per
cent cut and hand the bets over to the bigger bookmakers. Kyaw Kyaw has a
one in 99 chance of winning, and if he does, he'll get 80 times his stake.
Like all Burma's small-time gamblers, he loses nearly every day. But the
wins are what he remembers. "When I win I'll go out and buy lots of food,
and we'll cook for my family and my friends," he said.

While the two digits they bet on are random and completely unpredictable,
punters spend hours studying the form. Kyaw Kyaw's 81-year-old
grandfather, sitting cross-legged on his wooden bed, studies printouts of
the last months of numbers with studious concentration. He is looking for
patterns, sequences and if he thinks he's found a good one, he may place a
bigger bet than usual. Other gamblers consult Buddhist monks, astrologers
or their dreams.

At the Sky Cafe, the stock price flashes up on Thai TV, beamed in by an
illegal satellite dish on the roof. There is a lone whoop from the back,
but no one else seems to have won. The crowd murmurs with quiet
disappointment. "They don't believe it, they always think they're going to
win," says my translator, who has brought me here from central Rangoon in
a wooden-floored 1950s bus.

Burma's addiction to gambling has a price. While the ruling generals
enrich themselves by selling off the country's gas, timber and rubies,
their mishandling of the economy means those at the bottom of society have
nothing, perhaps just a bamboo shelter with a tarpaulin roof. There is no
social safety net, nothing to stop a family from going under when the
betting losses add up.

"When they've lost everything they must give up their house, take their
children out of school and send them to work. Often they will end up
begging," said a Burmese aid worker who runs self-help groups for poor
women living in shanty towns. "Last week I saw a woman begging, holding a
child. My friend told me she used to own a house, a good house, but
because of the lottery she lost everything. She became a beggar. Sometimes
they sleep in the market." As the poor lose, Burma's bookmakers are
getting richer. Although this is an illegal business, and anyone caught
gambling or taking bets could receive a prison sentence of between three
months and two years, a bribe will see off most policemen – who also
expect a cut if someone in the neighbourhood wins big.

In a comfortable, breezy apartment with a parquet floor and expensive teak
furniture, three men in white vests and chequered longyis sit around a
table , scribbling down numbers as the bets come in via mobile phone.
Running the operation is a 47-year-old doctor who can earn far more as an
illegal bookmaker than tending to patients in a Rangoon government
hospital, where the standard salary for a general practitioner is $80 a
month.

When the Bangkok exchange closing price is called through, he throws his
hands up and smiles. "I've lost," he says, "11 lak [around $1,000] this
week." But some weeks he makes double that amount, twice his annual
doctor's salary. "This job gives me freedom," he says.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

July 21, Khonumthung News
Increase in school dropouts in border areas of Chin state

The effects of famine in Chin state has led to an increase in the number
of school drop outs, especially, near the Indo-Myanmar border villages.

"Since, early 2007, because of the effects of famine in Chin state, Chin
people have been struggling for their livelihood. So they have been unable
to send their children to school. The number of children not receiving
education is going up," said the principal of Tawnglalungchau village,
Matupi town, southern Chin state.

"Desperate to eke out a living everyday the families are unable to afford
sending children to school," said the principle.

"Our village school has tilled standard seven. We had more than 40
students last year. This year we have about 20 students. Many have not
paid admission fees till now," said the principal to Khonunthung News.

"In village government schools, the number of students has come down. Most
of students are working as farmers. They have also gone to Mizoram to work
for a living," he added.

A few people remain in this village such as children, and elderly men and
women. Most of the young people have left school to find work. Most were
in 9th or 10th standards," the principal added.

Most Chin people are farmers. They used to stock food for two or three
years and could send the children to school by selling vegetables before
they were hit by the famine.

The famine comes in a 50-year cycle when bamboo flowers. Rats eat the
flowers and multiply rapidly and then destroy crops, food grains stored in
go downs and vegetables in Chin state.

Some NGOs are helping out with rice. However, there is no sponsorship for
children’s education.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

July 21, Russian Information Agency Novosti
Moscow stands by Myanmar nuclear cooperation deal

Nuclear cooperation between Russia and Myanmar is not in conflict with the
Nonproliferation Treaty or IAEA requirements, and will move ahead, a
Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Tuesday.

Andrei Nesterenko's comment came in response to U.S. concerns over the
cooperation.

However, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said earlier on Tuesday
that Washington was taking concerns about military cooperation between
nuclear-armed North Korea and Myanmar "very seriously," but made no
mention of Russia.

"Our cooperation with Myanmar is absolutely legitimate and in full
compliance with our obligations under the Nonproliferation Treaty and IAEA
requirements," Nesterenko said.

He added that the IAEA had no problem with Myanmar over its
nonproliferation commitments.

Russia signed an agreement in 2007 on the construction of a nuclear
research center in Myanmar, and it will stand by this agreement,
Nesterenko said.

The center will include a 10 MW light-water research reactor.

____________________________________
ASEAN

July 21, Bangkok Post
Burma key to fate of Asean – Achara Ashayagachat and Thanida Tansubhapol

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations cannot move forward until
changes occur in Burma, Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya says.

The Burmese issue was the focus of talks among Southeast Asian foreign
ministers here yesterday.

Other Asean ministers reiterated a call for the Burmese government to
immediately release political prisoners, including opposition leader Aung
San Suu Kyi, to pave the way for national reconciliation and their
participation in "inclusive" general elections next year.

Despite the strong call for change, the 10-member grouping showed no
intention to revise its constructive engagement with the military regime.

"Recognising the fact that the Myanmar [Burmese] government has been
trying to address many complex challenges, we remained constructively
engaged with Myanmar as part of the Asean Community building process,"
they said in a statement released yesterday.

Burma maintained its position that "pressure from the outside and economic
sanctions were hampering" its plan to restore democracy and development
efforts, the statement said.

But Mr Kasit, who is chairing the foreign ministers' meeting, said his
Burmese counterpart Nyan Win knew full well Asean could not move forward
without changes in Burma. So it was a joint undertaking, he said.

Asean secretary-general Surin Pitsuwan said Asean members should come
forward with their own contribution to assistance in the Cyclone Nargis
humanitarian efforts. Burma had received at least US$100 million (3.5
billion baht) in pledges for the latter half of the three-year recovery
plan prepared by the Tripartite Core Group comprising representatives from
the United Nations, Burma and Asean.

"The Asean contributions will create a momentum for international donors
to give more support to the $300 million needed for the recovery," he
said.

He called for a similar strategy in dealing with the Rohingya issue in
Burma. "There should be a way for the tripartite group to work together to
deliver humanitarian assistance to reduce the social and economic
pressures that are pushing the people out of the country," Mr Surin said.

In his opening statement to the ministerial meeting, Prime Minister
Abhisit Vejjajiva outlined the future of the group which needed quick and
united action to tackle threats and challenges and better linkages to
serve the region's single market idea.

"Effective action must replace extended deliberation. We must show to the
world that Asean is ready to meet any challenge and is well-prepared to
act decisively," Mr Abhisit said.

He said the future of the group depended on efforts to invest in education
and other human resource development.

"Globalisation will be beneficial only if the people in the region are
competitive, prepared and able to take advantage of it," he said.

Mr Abhisit repeated calls to oppose protectionism and urged Asean to live
with others' expectations of it being a driving force.

"The world is closely watching Asean, pinning on us the hope that we will
be a dynamic growth pole for the global economy in this time of crisis,"
he said.

The ministers also endorsed the terms of reference on the Asean
Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights amid Indonesian discontent
over the scope of the agency's functions.

Indonesia wanted the commission to be set up in October to do more than
promoting rights issues among the 10 Asean members.

Mr Kasit said at the end of the meeting Asean had opted to work towards
conciliation and consultation in an amicable manner when there were
differences or non-compliance including on human rights matters.

____________________________________

July 21, Voice of America
Indonesia says Burma must release democracy leader for elections to be
credible – Daniel Schearf

Indonesia's foreign minister has said Burma must release democracy leader
Aung San Suu Kyi if its 2010 elections are to be credible. Indonesia has
been pushing for tougher action against human rights violators during
meetings of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations this week in
Thailand.

Indonesians Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda on Tuesday gave a clear
message to Burma's military government.

He said Burma's elections next year will not be free and fair if anyone is
restricted from participating, including Burma's detained democracy
leader.

"We have been saying to them (Myanmar) directly that the process must be
inclusive for all groups in society 
 including Aung San Suu Kyi," he
said.

Wirayuda made the comments on the second day of meetings of foreign
ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which includes
Burma.

Indonesia has been pushing for a stronger human rights body to deal with
situations like Burma, where more than 2,000 political prisoners are
behind bars.

Indonesia is considered a successful Asian model for its transition from
military dictatorship to democracy, and has become outspoken about rights
violators.

Burma's military government is under intense pressure to release Aung San
Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for 13 years. She is now on trial
for breaking the terms of her house arrest, and faces five years in jail.

Rights groups and Western governments have called the trial a sham
designed to keep Aung San Suu Kyi locked up while the military rigs next
year's elections. Her National League for Democracy party won Burma's last
elections in 1990, but the military refused to give up power.

The situation in Burma has prompted some ASEAN members to break from the
group's tradition of not commenting on the internal affairs of other
members.

ASEAN Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan told journalists Monday as long as
Burma's political problems are not resolved, ASEAN will continue to have a
burden on its lap to explain to the world. He said ASEAN members are
trying to convince Burma's generals that now is the time to open up while
governments, such as the United States, are reassessing their policies.

"I think this is a good opportunity and it will take some convincing from
ASEAN for Myanmar to take a look at that kind of opening, that kind of
opportunity," Surin said. "And, I think we have been able to impress upon
them that this is a good time to try to accommodate an international
offer, international expectation, and ASEAN desire to help to engage."

Washington evaluating its policy on Burma, saying neither sanctions nor
engagement have worked.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Thailand Tuesday and
will meet with ASEAN foreign ministers in Phuket.

She is expected to discuss a range of issues from problem states Burma and
North Korea to concerns about terrorism and pollution.

Burma is expected to dominate discussions. Thailand's Foreign Minister
Kasit Piromya says resolving Burma's political problems is key to ASEAN's
future.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

July 21, Associated Press
Is Burma going nuclear? – Denis D. Gray

The recent aborted voyage of a North Korean ship, photographs of massive
tunnels and a top secret meeting have raised alarm bells that one of the
world's poorest nations may be aspiring to join the nuclear club—with help
from its friends in Pyongyang. No one expects military-run Burma, also
known as Myanmar, to obtain an atomic bomb anytime soon, but experts have
the Southeast Asian nation on their radar screen.

"There's suspicion that something is going on, and increasingly that
cooperation with North Korea may have a nuclear undercurrent. We are very
much looking into it," says David Albright, president of the Institute for
Science and International Security, a Washington DC think tank.

The issue is expected to be discussed, at least on the sidelines, at this
week's Asean Regional Forum, a major security conference hosted by
Thailand. US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, along with
representatives from North Korea and Burma, will attend.

Alert signals sounded recently when a North Korean freighter, the Kang Nam
I, headed toward Burma with undisclosed cargo. Shadowed by the US Navy, it
reversed course and returned home earlier this month.

It is still not clear what was aboard. US and South Korean officials
suspected artillery and other non-nuclear arms, but one South Korean
intelligence expert, citing satellite imagery, says the ship's mission
appeared to be related to a Burma nuclear program and also carried
Scud-type missiles.

The expert, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity
of the issue, said North Korea is helping Burma set up uranium- and
nuclear-related facilities, echoing similar reports that have long
circulated in Burma's exile community and media.

Meanwhile, Japanese police arrested a North Korean and two Japanese
nationals last month for allegedly trying to export a magnetic measuring
device to Burma that could be used to develop missiles.

And a recent report from Burmese exile media said senior Burmese military
officers made a top secret visit late last year to North Korea, where an
agreement was concluded for greatly expanding cooperation to modernize
Burma's military muscle, including the construction of underground
installations. The military pact report has yet to be confirmed.

In June, photographs, video and reports showed as many as 800 tunnels,
some of them vast, dug in Burma with North Korean assistance under an
operation code-named "Tortoise Shells." The photos were reportedly taken
between 2003 and 2006.

Thailand-based author Bertil Lintner is convinced of the authenticity of
the photos, which he was the first to obtain. However, the purpose of the
tunnel networks, many near the remote capital of Naypyidaw, remains a
question mark.

"There is no doubt that the Burmese generals would like to have a bomb so
that they could challenge the Americans and the rest of the world," says
Lintner, who has written books on both Burma and North Korea. "But they
must be decades away from acquiring anything that would even remotely
resemble an atomic bomb."

David Mathieson of the New York-based Human Rights Watch, who monitors
developments in Burma, says that while there's no firm evidence the
generals are pursuing a nuclear weapons capability, "a swirl of
circumstantial trends indicates something in the nuclear field is going on
that definitely warrants closer scrutiny by the international community."

Albright says some of the suspicion stems from North Korea's nuclear
cooperation with Syria, which now possesses a reactor. Syria had first
approached the Russians, just as Burma did earlier, but both countries
were rejected, so the Syrians turned to Pyongyang—a step Burma may also be
taking.

Since the early 2000s, dissidents and defectors from Burma have talked of
a "nuclear battalion," an atomic "Ayelar Project" working out of a
disguised flour mill and two Pakistani scientists who fled to Burma
following the September 11 World Trade Center attack providing assistance.
They gave no detailed evidence.

Now a spokesman for the self-styled Burmese government-in-exile, the
National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma, says that according
to sources working with the dissident movement inside the Burma army,
there are two heavily guarded buildings under construction "to hold
nuclear reactors" in central Burma.

Villagers in the area have been displaced, said spokesman Zinn Lin.

Andrew Selth of Australia's Griffith University, who has monitored Burma's
possible nuclear moves for a decade, says none of these reports has been
substantiated and calls the issue an "information black hole."

He also says Western governments are cautious in their assessments,
remembering the intelligence blunders regarding suspected weapons of mass
destruction in Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

A US State Department official, speaking on customary rules of anonymity,
said he would not comment on intelligence-related matters such as nuclear
proliferation.

"I don't want that to be seen as confirmation one way or the other.
Obviously, any time that a country does business with North Korea we're
going to watch to see what that is," the official said.

Alarm bells about Burma's aspirations have rung before. In 2007, Russia
signed an agreement to establish a nuclear studies center in Burma, build
a 10-megawatt nuclear research reactor for peaceful purposes and train
several hundred technicians in its operation.

However, Russia's atomic agency Rosatom told The Associated Press recently
that "there has been no movement whatsoever on this agreement with Burma
ever since."

Even earlier, before the military seized power, Burma sought to develop
nuclear energy, sending physicists to the United States and Britain for
studies in the 1950s. The military government established a Department of
Atomic Energy in 2001 under U Thaung, a known proponent of nuclear
technology who currently heads the Ministry of Science and Technology.

Burma is a party to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, and under a
safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency, it is
obligated to let the UN watchdog know at least six months in advance of
operating a nuclear facility, agency spokesman Ayhan Evrensel said.

Evrensel said the Vienna-based IAEA has asked Burma to sign a so-called
"additional protocol" that would allow agency experts to carry out
unannounced inspections and lead to a broader flow of information about
Burma's nuclear activities.

The regime has remained silent on whatever its plans may be. A Burmese
regime spokesman did not respond to an e-mail asking about Russian and
North Korean involvement in nuclear development.

In a rare comment from inside Burma, Chan Tun, former ambassador to North
Korea turned democracy activist, told the Thailand-based The Irrawaddy
magazine, "To put it plainly: Burma wants to get the technology to develop
a nuclear bomb.

"However, I have to say that it is childish of the Burmese generals to
dream about acquiring nuclear technology since they can't even provide
regular electricity in Burma," the Burmese exile publication quoted him
last month as saying.

Some experts think the generals may be bluffing.

"I would think that it's quite possible Yangon [Rangoon] would like to
scare other countries or may feel that talking about developing nuclear
technologies will give them more bargaining clout," said Cristina-Astrid
Hansell at the California-based James Martin Center for Nonproliferation
Studies. "This is not unreasonable, given the payoffs North Korea has
gotten for its nuclear program."

Associated Press writers Kwang-tae Kim in Seoul, Pauline Jellinek and Matt
Lee in Washington, Caroline Stauffer in Bangkok, George Jahn and William
Kole in Vienna and Nataliya Vasilyeva in Moscow contributed to this
report.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

July 21, New York Times
U.S. worried over Myanmar-N. Korea arms links – Mark Landler

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, arriving here for a meeting of
Southeast Asian nations, expressed concern on Tuesday about what she
called growing evidence of military cooperation between North Korea and
Myanmar, which she said could destabilize the region.

Declaring that she takes the reports such cooperation “very seriously,”
Mrs. Clinton said that expanded military ties between the countries would
“pose a direct threat” to Myanmar’s neighbors. She singled out Thailand,
an ally of the United States and the host of the regional meeting, as
being vulnerable to a heavily armed Myanmar, a reclusive dictatorship also
known as Burma.

Suspicions about North Korea’s relationship with Myanmar deepened recently
when a North Korea freighter appeared to be steaming toward Myanmar.
American officials, believing the ship might be carrying weapons or other
illicit cargo, tracked it until it reversed course.

North Korea is already suspected of supplying Myanmar with small arms and
ammunition, but some intelligence analysts contend that North Korea is
also helping Myanmar pursue a nuclear weapons program. They cite as
possible evidence newly published photos circulated by Burmese dissident
groups of what some analysts assert are a network of giant tunnels outside
Myanmar’s jungle capital, Naypyidaw, built with help from North Korean
engineers.

Mrs. Clinton did not say whether the Obama administration shares
suspicions about any nuclear cooperation. But another senior
administration official said the United States had not discounted the
possibility. “North Korea has a history of proliferating,” said the
official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because only Mrs. Clinton
was authorized to speak publicly in advance of the conference.

Even without these links, Myanmar and North Korea are likely to dominate
the meeting of the Association of Southeast Nations, or ASEAN, which
begins Wednesday on the resort island of Phuket.

Mrs. Clinton plans to meet with the foreign ministers of several countries
to firm up support for the latest United Nations resolution against North
Korea, adopted after Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile tests.

Although the United States is putting most of its emphasis on enforcing
the sanctions in that resolution, it has begun discussing possible
incentives that the countries could offer North Korea, if its regime
agreed to abandon its nuclear ambitions and return to the bargaining
table.

Officials declined to say what might be on the table, though they said it
would be a mix of familiar and new elements. In the past, the United
States and other counties have offered Pyongyang shipments of fuel.

“There are obviously a list of incentives, offers that could be made if
the North Koreans evidence any willingness to take a different path,” Mrs.
Clinton said at a news conference here, after arriving from New Delhi. “As
of this moment in time, we haven’t seen that evidence.”

The administration’s decision to broach the possibility of incentives,
officials said, will make it easier to persuade countries like China,
which have previously resisted sanctions against North Korea, from
agreeing to implement the tougher measures in the United Nations
resolution.

North Korea is expected to send a delegate to the ASEAN conference, but
Mrs. Clinton did not plan to meet that person. American officials said
there was always the possibility of a chance encounter of a North Korean
diplomat and one of Mrs. Clinton’s lieutenants on the sidelines.

Mrs. Clinton also has no plans to meet with a representative of Myanmar.
On Tuesday, she used unusually tough language in discussing the country’s
human rights record and its treatment of Aung Sang Suu Kyi, the
pro-democracy leader on trial for violating her house arrest by sheltering
an American man who swam across a lake to her bungalow last May.

“We are deeply concerned by the reports of continuing human rights abuses
within Burma,” she said, “and particularly by actions that are attributed
to the Burmese military, concerning the mistreatment and abuse of young
girls.”

The Obama administration has been reviewing American policy toward Myanmar
since February, when Mrs. Clinton declared that the existing sanctions
against its military regime had been ineffective.

But the United States will not announce a new policy at this meeting,
largely because repeated delays in the trial of Mrs. Aung Sang Suu Kyi
have made it difficult for the administration to develop a response. Mrs.
Clinton repeated her demand that Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi be treated fairly,
and dismissed the charges against her as “baseless and totally
unacceptable.”

“Our position is that we are willing to have a more productive partnership
with Burma if they take steps that are self-evident,” she said.

She called on the regime to release political prisoners and to “end the
violence” against its own people, including ethnic minorities. In recent
months, the military has launched a fierce offensive against the Karen
minority, driving refugees across the border into Thailand.

Both Chinese and American officials have pressed Myanmar to adhere to the
anti-proliferation measures in the sanctions against North Korea, which it
has pledged to do. Analysts say there is evidence, in the aborted voyage
of the North Korean freighter, that the regime got the message.

Without a new American policy to announce, however, the United States and
Asian nations are unlikely to break much ground in trying to bring the
generals who run Myanmar back into the fold.

Appearing with Mrs. Clinton, one of Thailand’s deputy prime ministers,
Korbsak Sabhavasu, said, “I think we basically almost just about share the
same thoughts and ideas on how to solve this problem.”

____________________________________

July 21, Agence France Presse
Gandhi trust awards Aung San Suu Kyi peace prize

The Mahatma Gandhi prize was on Monday handed over to a representative of
Myanmar's imprisoned Aung San Suu Kyi, an AFP correspondent said.

The Durban-based committee behind the International Award for Peace and
Reconciliation handed over the prize to Aung San Suu Kyi's cousin, the
head of Myanmar's self-proclaimed government-in-exile, Sein Win, as the
country's rights icon awaits trial on charges of violating her house
arrest.

"Everybody would have wanted to see her collect this prize in person," her
representative said. "Obviously that would have been better (but) she has
to attend to her trial in Burma at the moment. I'm worried they will find
her guilty."

The prize is awarded by the Gandhi Development Trust in honour of the
pre-eminent political and spiritual leader of India during that country's
movement for independence from the British empire.

Gandhi's early years as a lawyer were spent in South Africa, where the
recipient of last year's prize, anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela, fought
an even longer struggle for freedom.

Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has been deprived of her liberty for more
than 13 of the last 19 years, and has been kept in jail since May after an
American man swam uninvited to her home.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

July 21, New Straits Times (Malaysia)
Yangon's actions make light of human rights body

Myanmar has again cast a long shadow over Asean. Just as the grouping's
foreign ministers agreed on Sunday on the mechanics of the region's first
ever human rights body, the Myanmar military junta swooped in and jailed
50 pro-democracy activists in Yangon on the same day.

Asean bigwigs, such as secretary-general Surin Pitsuwan, deftly avoided
questions from journalists on whether member countries had queried Myanmar
about the arrests during dinner after the ministers finished talks about
the rights body.

By the time the Asean Ministerial Meeting was officially opened yesterday
- where the ministers would finalise all preparations for the
Inter-governmental Commission on Human Rights - much doubt was cast on
whether the commission would really amount to anything at all.

The point was made by journalists at the press conference with Thai Prime
Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva after the opening ceremony.

Why set up a human rights body for Asean when you have a member that
routinely breaks every principle and ignores every value the grouping
stands for?

The issue was not just the arrest of the 50 activists, who belong to the
National League for Democracy, during a peaceful march. The NLD's leader,
Aung San Suu Kyi, an international cause celebre, is currently imprisoned
and on trial for breaking conditions of her house arrest.

Abhisit, whose country currently holds the revolving chairmanship,
stressed that the rights body will "grow" teeth and what is important is
that it is first "born".

"It is important to establish the body according to three principles, that
it is realistic, credible and evolutionary.

"Progress can still be made. It does not mean that when we concentrate on
promotion, we ignore protection."

The body's Terms of Reference, which determine how it functions, allow
Asean governments to add in new abilities such as the power to protect
victims.

Abhisit also repeated the approach that Asean has always taken with
Myanmar, and which it believes is the best way to deal with that country's
ruler-generals. It is better to continually engage them rather than to
sanction and alienate.

"We learn their point of view and we communicate the international
community's views. Asean will continue to help Myanmar in its roadmap to
democracy," he told the press.

A human rights activist points out that although Myanmar is a "blunt
challenge" to the grouping's ambition to create a strong human rights
mechanism, it does not mean that such a dream exceeds Asean's grasp.

Rafendi Djamin, who gave input for the rights body, says it is important
to realise that Myanmar had actually agreed to the rights body and had
signed on to the Asean Charter, which among others promotes the rule of
law and the respect of fundamental human rights.

"Myanmar is wrestling with it (the idea of respecting human rights), but
they will have to move forward to adopt norms and standards outlined in
the charter as long as they are signatories."

Meaning that at a fundamental level, Myanmar's government realises that it
must clean up its act and start on the path towards recognising human
rights.

"Once you sign on to the charter, it is really a point of no return. You
have to move forward," said Rafendi, convenor of the Solidarity for Asian
People's Advocacy Task Force on Asean and Human Rights.