BurmaNet News, August 28, 2009

[Editor]

August 28, 2009 Issue #3786

INSIDE BURMA
NYT: Refugees flee to China as fighting breaks out in Myanmar
Al Jazeera: Myanmar's Suu Kyi to appeal
Irrawaddy: US Congress staffers meet NLD

ON THE BORDER
Reuters: Myanmar fighting forces 10,000 to flee to China
SHAN: Rebels say junta shell kills Chinese soldiers

BUSINESS / TRADE
IPS: Economic crisis hits Burmese migrant women
Xinhua: More Indian companies to invest in Myanmar this year

REGIONAL
AP: China urges Myanmar to end conflict in border area
Mizzima: Race held demanding Aung San Suu Kyi’s release

INTERNATIONAL
VOA News: Burmese exile government urges Washington to stay firm on sanctions

OPINION / OTHER
Irrawaddy: Junta renews ‘divide-and-rule’ tactic in Shan state - Wai Moe

INTERVIEW
Irrawaddy: Suu Kyi’s right hand man

PRESS RELEASE
USCB:  Massive flight of refugees from Burma

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

August 28, New York Times
Refugees flee to China as fighting breaks out in Myanmar - Thomas Fuller

Bangkok — After two decades of relative calm in northern Myanmar, fighting
has broken out between the central government and upland ethnic groups,
sending tens of thousands of refugees fleeing into neighboring China

The fighting in Shan State, including two battles on Thursday near the
Myanmar town of Kunglong, threatens to undo a fragile patchwork of
cease-fire agreements that brought calm to the mountainous northern areas
in the 1990s after decades of civil war.

The official Chinese news agency Xinhua reported Thursday that refugees
were fleeing into Yunnan Province, which borders Myanmar. An estimate by
the U.S. Campaign for Burma, a pressure group that opposes Myanmar’s
central government, put the number of refugees at around 10,000. Myanmar
was formerly known as Burma. The office of the United States High
Commissioner for Refugees said it had received reports that 10,000 to
30,000 people fleeing the fighting had entered Yunnan Province since Aug.
8.

“We have been informed that local authorities in Yunnan Province have
already provided emergency shelter, food and medical care to the
refugees,” the agency said in a statement.

More than a dozen armed ethnic groups are being pressed by Myanmar’s
central government to give up their weapons and become border guards, an
effort that appears to have galvanized the groups’ opposition toward the
central government.

“In my 30 years’ experience on the border this is the first time I’ve seen
such unity among the ethnic groups,” said Aung Kyaw Zaw, a former soldier
in the defunct Burmese Communist Party who monitors the conflict from his
home in Ruili, along the China-Myanmar border.

Fighting between government forces and soldiers from the Kokang ethnic
group took place Thursday morning in the village of Yan Lon Kyaik, only a
few hundred yards from the border with China, Mr. Aung Kyaw Zaw said. It
resumed Thursday evening in the village of Chin Swe Haw, where three
Kokang fighters and several dozen government troopers were killed.

There was no way to independently confirm the accounts of the fighting,
which occurred in a remote area along the border. The Kokang are
reportedly receiving help from other ethnic groups.

The Myanmar military moved troops into the area earlier this month, saying
they would crack down on the illegal drug business, according to the U.S.
Campaign for Burma.

If the Myanmar military continues its advance, Mr. Aung Kyaw Zaw said,
“there will be so much bloodshed.” The central government, he said, has
sent reinforcements to the area.

Various ethnic groups control large pockets of territory in the northern
borderland areas and risk losing their control over the lucrative trade in
timber, jade, gemstones and, in some cases, heroin and methamphetamine.

The Kokang are allied with the most heavily armed group along the Chinese
border, the United Wa State Army, which has about 20,000 soldiers and is
known to have large-caliber weapons, including field artillery and
antitank missiles.

Farther north, the Kachin Independence Army has around 4,000 men under arms.

“This Kokang fighting is not only a Kokang problem — it has become a wider
issue,” said Brang Lai, a local official in Laiza, a town on the Chinese
border controlled by the Kachin Independence Organization.

“The border guard issue is unacceptable for all the armed groups. All the
armed groups have a common agreement to help each other.”

The refugee crisis prompted China to make a rare comment about the
internal affairs of one of its neighbors. Jiang Yu, a spokeswoman for the
Chinese Foreign Ministry, said that the government in Beijing “hopes that
Myanmar can properly deal with its domestic issue to safeguard the
regional stability of its bordering area,” Xinhua reported. She also said
China was monitoring the situation and had expressed concern about the
safety of its citizens in the area.

The fighting comes as Myanmar’s military government prepares to adopt a
new and disputed Constitution next year.

“They want to show military victory before the elections next year,” said
Win Min, a lecturer in contemporary Burmese politics at Payap University
in Chiang Mai, Thailand. In early June the government launched a
successful offensive against ethnic Karen insurgents along the border with
Thailand.

The elections and new Constitution would nominally return Myanmar to
civilian governance after four and a half decades of military rule. The
junta is proposing a unitary state, but the ethnic groups are loath to
give up their hard-won autonomy and fear domination by the majority Burman
ethnic group, most of whom are Buddhist and today hold the reins of power
in Myanmar’s military junta.

“My sense is that the fighting will continue and could spread to other
areas,” said Aung Din, the executive director of the U.S. Campaign for
Burma.

____________________________________

August 28, Al Jazeera
Myanmar's Suu Kyi to appeal

Lawyers for Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar's detained opposition leader, have
said they will file an appeal next week against the criminal conviction
that extended her house arrest by another 18 months.

Early this month a Myanmar district court found her guilty of violating
the terms of her detention by sheltering an uninvited American visitor
after he swam to her lakeside home.

The detention order prevents Aung San Suu Kyi from contesting in general
election's planned by Myanmar's military government for next year.

Nyan Win, one of the lawyers, said they met Aung San Suu Kyi, 64, for two
hours on Thursday afternoon to finalise details of her appeal which will
be submitted to the Divisional Court in Yangon early next week.

The Nobel peace laureate was initially sentenced to three years in prison
with hard labour.

But the sentence was later reduced to 18 months house arrest on the orders
of Senior General Than Shwe, the head of the country's military
government.

The American, John Yettaw, who was sentenced to seven years in prison, was
released on humanitarian grounds and deported on August 16.

Aung San Suu Kyi has been detained for about 14 of the past 20 years for
her political activities but this year was the first time she faced
criminal charges.

Her party, the National League for Democracy, swept elections in 1990 but
the results were rejected by the military, which has ruled Myanmar since
1962.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2009/08/20098284314381600.html

____________________________________

August 28, Irrawaddy
US Congress staffers meet NLD

Three US Congress staffers met with representatives from the opposition
National League for Democracy (NLD) in Rangoon for talks about political
prisoners including Aung San Suu Kyi, and the US policy review on Burma,
an NLD spokesman said.

“We met with the Congress staffers at NLD headquarters at 4 p.m. On
Friday. The main reason for their trip is to discuss humanitarian issues,”
NLD spokesman Nyan Win said. “We talked about Burmese politics—the first
issue they raised concerned the political prisoners.”

The US Congress staffers also asked about Suu Kyi’s detention, he said.

During the meeting, the staffers told the NLD policymakers are still
discussing a US policy shift in Washington. “But they said they did not
think a decision on the Burma policy review will come soon,” Nyan Win
said.

After US Senator Jim Webb’s recent trip and article in the New York Times,
Nyan Win said he told the Congress staffers that Suu Kyi said she did not
think his trip and his writing reflected the policy of the Obama
administration.

“I think the staffers came to Burma to survey the facts for the policy
review or for Congress,” he said.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

August 28, Reuters
Myanmar fighting forces 10,000 to flee to China - Chris Buckley

Beijing - Fresh fighting has erupted between Myanmar forces and an armed
ethnic group in the remote northeast, forcing 10,000 people to flee across
the border into China, activists and state media said on Friday.

Thousands have fled this month from Kokang in Myanmar's Shan State after
clashes there, which, according to a U.S.-based rights group, followed the
deployment of troops in the area, home to a large number of ethnic
Chinese.

The Washington-based U.S. Campaign for Burma, citing information from
local journalists in contact with the ethnic groups, said on Friday that
armed clashes had taken place for the first time in 20 years, breaking a
ceasefire.

A news website run by Yunnan province (http://www.yunnan.cn) in China,
bordering Myanmar, said fighting flared on Thursday, "leading residents
from the Myanmar side to panic and flood in large numbers into our
territory."

The website said that by Friday morning a total of about 10,000 people had
fled into China.

They were being steered to seven collection points, the main one holding
more than 5,000 people, where they received instant noodles, water and
temporary housing, a local source said.

The trouble on the frontier may raise tension between China and Myanmar,
whose military junta looks to Beijing as one of its few diplomatic backers
and a crucial source of investment.

"This has been building for a long time. The army has not only increased
tensions and caused distress with the ethnic groups, they're straining
ties with China," Aung Zaw, editor of the Thai-based Irrawaddy magazine,
told Reuters.

"Beijing's biggest concern is stability near the border, and it is not
pleased about what's happening now."

Kokang, where the trouble erupted, is home to many ethnic Chinese and
Chinese nationals, many of whom run businesses and trade across the
border.

He Shengda, an expert on the region at the Yunnan Academy of Social
Sciences, said the Myanmar government's efforts to impose its control on
the region risked sparking wider conflict.

"It would be no easy thing for the Myanmar government to rein in local
power," He told the Global Times, a Chinese newspaper. "These local
militia won't meekly abandon power, and a region that was peaceful may
experience turmoil."

The paper said most of the refugees were Myanmar nationals.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has offered its
assistance, but has had no response from the Chinese government.

INCREASED SECURITY

The Global Times said the government has ordered stronger security along
the border to prevent the conflict spilling into Yunnan.

U.S. Campaign for Burma told Reuters that 10 Myanmar police officers
fleeing the fighting had accidentally crossed into China, where they were
disarmed by the authorities and sent back.

Local reports said the army had blocked roads and sporadic clashes were
taking place. Reuters could not immediately verify the information, and no
mention of the clashes was made in Myanmar's state media.

Analysts and activists said the mobilization of troops was a move by the
junta to force ethnic groups to join an army-run border force.

The regime wants the groups to form political parties to contest next
year's election, the first in Myanmar in 20 years, but most do not trust
the military government and feel they have nothing to gain from entering
the process.

"The regime's aim is to disarm and control the ethnic rebels and
neutralize their threat before the elections," Aung Zaw added.

The Myanmar Peace and Democracy Front (MPDF), an alliance of four ethnic
groups, and Chinese media reports said the flashpoint came when troops
attacked a factory used by the ethnic groups to repair weapons on the
suspicion it was being used to produce illicit drugs.

Activists and Burmese-language radio broadcasts said the situation had
been complicated by an attempted coup by a faction of the military arm of
the ethnic alliance, which wanted to join the army's border force, under
pressure from the Yangon regime.

(Additional reporting by Huang Yan and Lucy Hornby in Beijing, Martin
Petty in Bangkok and Aung Hla Tun in Yangon; Editing by Alex Richardson)

____________________________________

August 28, Shan Herald Agency for News
Rebels say junta shell kills Chinese soldiers

The United Wa State Army (UWSA) that has joined battle with its Kokang
ally against the Burma Army yesterday said a shell aimed for its mountain
base near the border had overshot the mark and killed one People’s
Liberation Army (PLA) soldier while wounding two others.

“When the Burma Army launched attack against the mountain base near
Qingsuihe (Chinshwehaw) in the afternoon, we had no choice, but to join
the fight,” said a UWSA officer who asked not to be named.

Kokang’s Qingsuihe, also known as Nampha in Shan is opposite the Wa’s
Namteuk (written Nanding in Pinyin) in the south. The two towns are
separated by the Namting, a tributary of the Salween, and connected by a
bridge. The fall of the strategic mountain base would have threatened
Namteuk, according to the UWSA.

“We captured more than a hundred POWs, whom we turned over to the PLA,” he
claimed.
[Refugees in Burma's Shan State arrive in China, on August 25. (Photo:
Reuters)]

Refugees in Burma's Shan State arrive in China, on August 25. (Photo:
Reuters)

No independent confirmation of the rebels’ statement could be obtained as
yet. (Latest information says the casualties were civilians, not PLA
soldiers)

Resumption of hostilities between the Kokang-Wa-Mongla forces and the
Burma Army (after 20 years of an uneasy but working truce) started
yesterday morning when a police patrol that had strayed too near the
Kokangs’ temporary headquarters was attacked. Three policeman were
reportedly killed and the rest fled across the border where they were
disarmed by the PLA. (Kachin News Group reported they were soldiers in
police uniforms.)

Meanwhile, the Burma Army that had ousted Kokang leader Peng Jiasheng has
appointed his former deputy-turned-defector Bai Souqian as the new leader.
“The Kokang Army (also known as Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army)
has about 1,000 troops,” said a businessman who had just gone out of
business in Kokang. “Not more than 200 had joined Bai. The rest are still
with Peng.”

The Burma Army’s next target after Kokang that covers the Wa’s northern
border could be Mongla that protects the Wa’s southern border, said a the
anti-Rangoon Shan State Army (SSA) ‘South’ source. The closure of two
borders could have strangled the UWSA to death without fighting, according
to a Thai security source.

However, according to reports coming from the Thai-Burma border, the Burma
Army’s next target could also be the UWSA’s 171st Military Region,
opposite Thailand’s Maehongson, Chiangmai and Chiangrai provinces.

The Operations Commander in Mongton, opposite Chinagmai, reportedly
demanded on 26 August that the Wa withdraw from all their bases west of
the Mongton-BP1 (Thai border) road. “He didn’t give any deadline as in the
past,” said an informed source in Mongton. “He just said ‘at once’.
Naturally, the Wa, instead of complying with his order, merely reinforced
their positions.”

On the other hand, no reports of the new Burma Army units into the area
have been received, said the SSA South. “But all our units have been
placed on the alert,” said Col Yawdserk, the SSA’s supreme commander.

Meanwhile, Hkun Okker of the National Council of the Union of Burma (NCUB)
said Burma’s military rulers could find itself fighting on two fronts as
in 1988. “September is the second anniversary of the Saffron Revolution,”
he told SHAN. “I certainly hope the two parties (those protesting in the
towns and cities and those fighting on the borders) can find ways to
cooperate and coordinate their activities.”

The military regime that was facing 8888 uprising on the one hand and
facing the Chinese-backed Communist Party of Burma (CPB) on the other was
saved by the mutinies that erupted within the CPB’s ranks in 1989. The
ensuing ceasefire pacts between the mutineers and Burma’s military
government had been celebrated by Kokang, Wa and Mongla in March, April
and June respectively.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

August 28, Inter Press Service
Economic crisis hits Burmese migrant women - Marwaan Macan-Markar

The global financial crisis is threatening to shred the dreams of
thousands of women from Burma, who have fled their military-ruled country
over the past decade for better jobs in more prosperous Thailand, say
activists.

Mae Sot, a town along the Thai-Burma border that has been a magnet for
female migrant workers, is one area where this pain is being felt, they
add. Ongoing conflicts between the military and ethnic groups and a
depressed economy in Burma, also known as Myanmar, are among the reasons
behind such flight across the border.

"There is growing worry among these women that they will not be able to
remit part of their earnings to their families in Burma," says Jackie
Pollock, director of the Migrant Action Programme, a group lobbying for
migrants’ rights in Thailand. "Entire families depend on such remittances,
which are about 2,500 baht (about 75 U.S. dollars) every quarter."

She expects this predicament to worsen as the crisis, which has resulted
in the drying up of export markets in the United States, unfolds in the
months ahead. "It is just starting to hit them. The families in Burma are
living off what was saved from last year’s remittances."

This economic downturn is squeezing a female labour force that is already
being discriminated against by the factory owners, mostly Thais, who
refuse to pay the daily minimum wage. The Burmese women who labour for
hours behind sewing machines get between 60 and 80 baht a day, whereas the
minimum wage set out by the Thai state for Mae Sot is 151 baht (4.57 U.S.
dollars) a day.

These women make up the predominant labour force in the nearly 300
export-oriented textile and garment factories in Mae Sot, reveals a report
launched Friday in Bangkok. Each factory employs 100 to 1,000 workers,
while "about another 200 unregistered ‘home factories’ would employ
between five and 20 workers," says the report.

This female labour force is part of the estimated 300,000 Burmese migrant
workers in Mae Sot, which also provides work in other areas. That includes
jobs in agriculture, construction, domestic work, call centres, the
entertainment industry and on garbage sites.

In all these fields of labour, "women are shouldering a disproportionate
burden," says Soe Lin Aung, co-author of the 48-page report, ‘Critical
Times – Migrants and the Economy in Chiang Mai and Mae Sot’. "A
substantial number of women we surveyed – 43 percent – reported a drop in
their incomes."

"Knitting factories, which produce warm clothing largely for very hard-hit
U.S. and European markets, are said to be struggling disproportionately,
with demand dropping steeply," states the report. "The local chapter of
the Federation of Thai Industries claims that orders have dropped by 12
percent, and ‘the talk,’ as one report puts it, is overwhelming layoffs,
reduced working hours and increased difficulty finding new jobs."

Currently, the average monthly income for a worker in such factories
hovers close to 2,500 baht, with only regular shifts available. Yet "at
this time last year, which is a relatively high season, a knitting factory
employee might have made 6,000 baht (182 U.S. dollars) a month, while a
garment factory worker would have made a bit more than 3,000 baht,
including overtime hours," adds the report.

"I can’t support my parents because I’m not in a good job situation. My
brother and sister are also not okay – they also can’t support with any
money," says one female migrant worker interviewed for the report.

The money sent home by the migrant workers has become a vital lifeline for
the families they have left behind, most of whom are elderly fathers and
mothers and children too young to work.

"Over 30 people have come to work in Thailand from my village," says Deng
Lungjong, who works in the northern city of Chiang Mai, another magnet for
Burmese women in search of jobs.

"There are six people in my village that are depending on the money I
remit home," the 26-year-old said in an interview. "Earlier I could remit
money four times a year; now I can only send twice a year."

The migrant workers in Mae Sot and Chiang Mai are among an estimated two
million registered and unregistered migrant workers from Burma, Cambodia
and Laos in Thailand. They labour in work described by labour rights
groups as "dirty, dangerous and difficult." The majority of them – over
one million – are from Burma.

The plight of the migrant workers in Mae Sot – or other parts of Thailand
feeling the economic pain – hardly surprises the International Labour
Organisation (ILO). "All too often migrant workers in poorly visible
categories of work tend to be the shock absorbers during an economic
downturn," says Tim De Meyer, labour standards specialist at the
Bangkok-based Asia office of the ILO.

In fact, the Geneva-based body did have the female migrant workers from
Burma in mind when it said earlier this year that the current economic
meltdown has a "woman’s face," since women laborers are affected more
severely, and differently, compared to their male counterparts.

In the Asia-Pacific region, the ILO projected that as many as 27 more
people could become unemployed, pushing the total number of people in the
region without jobs to 112.2 million.

And hit taken by women in this dire picture stems from the work they do:
often in labour-intensive export industries like the ones in Mae Sot.

It was a similar scenario that played out a decade ago, when South-east
Asia was hit by the 1997 financial crisis, decimating once vibrant,
export-driven economies. In Thailand, for instance, 95 percent of the
workers laid off from the garment sector were women, according to the ILO.

But despite such a reality repeating itself in places like Mae Sot, the
female migrants from Burma are reluctant to return home. "While the
situation may be getting bad here, the situation is worse in Burma," says
Deng, who have been working in Thailand for 10 years. "My family at home
has only me to depend on."

____________________________________

August 28, Xinhua News
More Indian companies to invest in Myanmar this year

Yangon, More Indian companies are to invest in Myanmar's information
technology (IT) and education sectors this year, a local weekly The
Myanmar Post reported Thursday.

Being one of the IT power countries, India is willing to support Myanmar
in the advancement of IT sector if Myanmar sides propose for the
assistance, the report quoting the India embassy, adding that India has
also planned to grant more scholarships to Myanmar students who desire to
pursue their further education in the country.

India has so far awarded scholarships to over 150 Myanmar students, it added.

During last year, Myanmar and India cooperated in implementation of
setting up 11 centers for enhancement of IT skill in key cities of Yangon,
Mandalay and others.

The project, implemented by the Centre for Development Advanced Computing
(CDAC) of India and the state-run Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications
(MPT), started at the end of last year and with regard to the project,
Myanmar sent 100 government servants to India to undergo the training.

Meanwhile, Myanmar and India also cooperated in implementing cross-border
optical fiber link between the two countries to boost information link
which started in December 2006, according to the earlier report.

The 640-kilometer-long Myanmar-India optical fiber link project which
worth 7 million U.S. dollars connects India's northeastern border town of
Moreh and Myanmar's second largest city of Mandalay, passes through six
cities of Tamu, Kampatwa, KyiGone, Shwebo, Monywa and Sagaing.

Along the fiber link, ADSL+2 systems with 7,000 lines are being installed
in 80 locations including Yangon, Mandalay and Nay Pyi Taw.

Myanmar official statistics show that Myanmar-India bilateral trade
reached 951.3 million U.S. dollars in 2008-09 with Myanmar's exports to
India accounting for 805.1 million U.S. dollars and its imports from India
146.2 million dollars.

India stands as Myanmar's 4th largest trading partner after Thailand,
China and Singapore and also Myanmar's second largest export market after
Thailand, absorbing 25 percent of its total exports.

The Myanmar compiled figures also show that India's contracted investment
in Myanmar reached 219.57 million U.S. dollars as of January 2008, of
which 137 million were drawn into the oil and gas sector in September
2007.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

August 28, The Associated Press
China urges Myanmar to end conflict in border area - Christopher Bodeen

Beijing -- Beijing has called on neighboring Myanmar to end combat
operations in a border area after at least 10,000 people fled into China
in recent days.

China hopes Myanmar can "properly deal with its domestic issue to
safeguard the regional stability in the China-Myanmar border area,"
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said in a statement posted on the
ministry's Web site.

Jiang also demanded Myanmar ensure the safety and legal rights of Chinese
citizens in that country, adding that Beijing has also conveyed its
concerns through diplomatic channels.

The statement is rare for China and could indicate growing concern in
Beijing that the fighting between Myanmar's military and ethnic militias
might spill across the border into its southwestern province of Yunnan.

Beijing maintains close ties with Myanmar's ruling military junta and
usually takes care to not entangle itself in the regime's affairs.

Militants who have long fought for autonomy for Myanmar's Kokang minority
attacked a police post along the border with China near the town of Laogai
on Thursday, according to the U.S. Campaign for Burma. The
Washington-based lobbying group said several police officers were killed.

Myanmar's military rulers and the state-controlled press made no comment
on the situation at the border.

People were still crossing from Myanmar's Kokang region late Friday, and
Chinese authorities were housing them at seven separate locations along
the border, the Yunnan provincial government said in a brief statement
faxed to media. It said about 10,000 people had crossed the border but did
not say how many had been placed at the government shelters.

Chinese authorities were providing medical services and taking measures to
prevent disease, the statement said.

A spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in Geneva said the
group had received reports that between 10,000 and 30,000 refugees have
fled in recent weeks from Myanmar into China.

"Our information is that as many as 30,000 people may have taken shelter
in Nansan County since August 8, saying they were fleeing fighting between
Myanmar government troops and ethnic minority groups," said UNHCR
spokesman Andrej Mahecic. "We have been informed that local authorities in
Yunnan Province have already provided emergency shelter, food and medical
care to the refugees.

An aid worker and a factory manager in the Chinese town of Nansan said
they could hear guns and artillery being fired over the border, some 150
feet (50 meters) away, throughout the day.

Myanmar's central government has rarely exerted control in Kokang - a
mostly ethnic Chinese region in the northern Shan state - and essentially
ceded control to a local militia after signing a cease-fire with them two
decades ago. The region is one of several areas along Myanmar's borders
where minority militias are seeking autonomy from the central government.

But tensions between the government and the Kokang people have been rising
in recent months, as the junta tries to consolidate its control of the
country and ensure stability ahead of national elections next year - the
first since the opposition National League for Democracy won by a
landslide in 1990, a result the military ignored.

The crisis has turned a spotlight on China's friendly ties with Myanmar's
authoritarian rulers. Beijing has consistently offered the military regime
diplomatic support based on its avowed policy of nonintervention while
China's border trade and oil and gas deals have thrown an economic
lifeline to the generals.

As the refugees poured in from Myanmar, Chinese authorities in Nansan
housed them in unfinished buildings, some still with no windows, said the
local factory manager, who would only give his surname, Li.

A worker with an international medical charity, who asked not to be named
for fear of reprisals from the local government, said local authorities
were caring for about 4,000 refugees. Several thousand more were staying
in hotels or with friends and family on the Chinese side, he said.

Tensions in Kokang rose earlier this month after militia leaders refused
to allow their guerrillas to be incorporated into a border guard force
under Myanmar army command.

Soldiers raided the home of militia leader Peng Jiashen on Aug. 8, and
Peng's forces began mobilizing. Peng's troops were forced out of Laogai on
Tuesday by government soldiers and a breakaway Kokang faction seeking to
overthrow Peng.

Kokang lies 1,400 miles (2,250 kilometers) southwest of Beijing and is
surrounded by lush mountains in a region notorious for the production and
use of heroin and methamphetamines, cross-border smuggling, gambling and
prostitution.

The region's links to China date back to the collapse of the Ming dynasty
350 years ago, when loyalists fled across the mountains into present-day
Myanmar to escape Manchu invaders.

In recent years, the area has attracted a flood of businessmen from China
who have opened hotels, restaurants and shops selling motorcycles,
electronics and other imports that are either pricey or unavailable in
other parts of the country.

Wary of the consequences of renewed conflict, many of those investors fled
back across the border this month, according to Chinese reports.

____________________________________

August 28, Mizzima News
Race held demanding Aung San Suu Kyi’s release

New Delhi - Hundreds of students of Delhi University’s Lady Shri Ram
College for Women on Friday ran a distance of 3. 3 kilometres in a
campaign to demand the release of detained former LSR student and Burmese
democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.

The pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace Laureate, recently sentenced to
another 18 months in detention in Burma, is a former student of Lady Shri
Ram College for Women in India’s capital, New Delhi.

Dr. Meenakshi Gopinath said the race was organized as a campaign to
promote awareness on the struggle for freedom in Burma from military
dictatorship and for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi.

“Aung San Suu Kyi or ‘Suu’ as we used to call her in college is a symbol
of courage and inspiration for us
 and we condemn her being sentenced to
another 18 months in detention,” Dr. Gopinath told Mizzima.

Aung San Suu Kyi, daughter of Burma’s Independence architect General Aung
San, was a student of Lady Shri Ram College in 1964. She came to New Delhi
with her mother Daw Khin Kyi, who was appointed ambassador to India, in
1960.

The democracy icon has been detained for 14 of the past 19 years and was
sentenced on August 11 to another term of detention of 18 months after
being charged with violating her previous detention rules by accepting an
American man at her lakeside home.

The race on Friday in New Delhi was one of the myriad activities across
the world organised by Aung San Suu Kyi’s supporters to promote awareness
regarding her detention. Her latest incarceration has galvanized activists
across the world to organize protests rallies and other demonstrations in
various towns and cities.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

August 27, VOA News
Burmese exile government urges Washington to stay firm on sanctions -
Daniel Schearf

A spokesman for the Burmese government in exile has urged Washington not
to hastily ease sanctions against Burma's military government. The exile
government and rights groups support U.S. engagement with Burma, but they
also want pressure for change.

A spokesman for the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma,
Zin Linn, says U.S. sanctions should stay in place until opposition leader
Aung San Suu Kyi is released and Burma's rulers agree to talks with the
opposition.

"All the sanctions made by the U.S. and EU will hurt directly to the
military junta, the generals, and only their cronies," he said. "Not hurt
to the ordinary peoples, because all the economic business, all the big
industries are in the hands of the generals and their relatives. No other,
ordinary people have a chance, or they have no rights to participate in
the economic sectors."

Zin Linn was responding to U.S. Senator Jim Webb's call for reducing
sanctions and further engaging Burma's rulers.

In an opinion article published this week in the New York Times newspaper,
Webb said the sanctions had only entrenched the Burmese generals and
isolated the country.

Benjamin Zawacki, a Burma researcher for Amnesty International, says
isolating a military government that is all too willing to isolate itself
is counter-productive. He says regional engagement is the only way that
changes are going to come.

"Further engagement and further pressure are not mutually exclusive
policies or tactics," said Zawacki. "And, so it needs more of both of
those things."

Zin Linn says he agrees the sanctions have not brought change. But he says
Washington must continue to pressure Burma's rulers to release Aung San
Suu Kyi and other key opposition figures if they want to see democracy in
the country.

Webb says sanctions also allow China, which does not support the measures,
to dramatically increase its economic and political influence with Burma,
which he called a "dangerous strategic imbalance."

Senator Webb earlier this month became the most senior U.S. politician to
visit Burma in a decade.

He met with Burma's reclusive military leader Than Shwe and opposition
leader Aung San Suu Kyi. He also secured the release of American John
Yettaw, who was sentenced to seven years hard labor for visiting Aung San
Suu Kyi without official permission.

The military government extended her house arrest by 18 months for
allowing the uninvited guest to stay two days.

The military has held Aung San Suu Kyi for 14 of the past 20 years,
drawing condemnation by much of the international community, including the
United States and the United Nations.

The National League for Democracy, which Aung San Suu Kyi leads, won
Burma's last election, in 1990, but was never allowed to take office. Many
of those elected were forced to flee the country and they have formed the
government in exile.

http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-08-27-voa14.cfm

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

August 28, Irrawaddy
Junta renews ‘divide-and-rule’ tactic in Shan state - Wai Moe

Two decades of ceasefire agreements between the Burmese junta and northern
ethnic armies have collapsed as armed clashes broke out on Thursday when
the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) and its ethnic
allies opened fire on Burmese troops around the Kokang capital of Laogai.

Government troops took over Laogai on Monday without firing a single shot.

According to informed border sources, skirmishes continued from Thursday
morning into Friday. Government troops fired artillery rounds into MNDAA
positions, reportedly killing one Chinese civilian. One government
policeman also has died, sources said.

Border guards and the regime’s constitution

Tension between the regime and ethnic ceasefire groups in northern Shan
state increased steadily over the past few months as the junta began
pressuring cease-fire groups to disarm and transform into a border guard
force in April, in accordance with the new 2008 constitution which calls
for all ethnic armies to be under the control of the regime.

Cease-fire groups such as the Wa, Kachin, Shan State Army [North] and
Kokang have all rejected the guard force proposal.

Wa and Kokang delegates who attended the military-sponsored National
Convention in Rangoon spoke out against the clause in the draft
constitution, saying it limited the autonomy of ethnic minorities.

Aung Moe Zaw, a secretary with the exiled umbrella opposition National
Council of Union of Burma, said the recent conflict clearly grows out of
the flawed approval process of the constitution in 2008.

The ethnic minorities also are uphappy about the junta’s so-called
“7-steps to democracy” process leading up to the 2010 national election.

Why the Kokang?

Why did the junta’s generals choose to confront the Kokang leaders first?

The Kokang army, with about 800 troops, is weaker than other ethnic
armies, and its leaders clearly opposed placing their troops under
government control. The Kokang are widely known to be heavily involved in
the illicit drug trade.

Compared to the 20,000 Wa soldiers in the UWSA and the 4,000 Kachin
soldiers with the KIA, the Kokang army presents an easy target.

The regime first launched a public relations offensive, linking Peng
Jiasheng to the illicit drug trade. Bertil Linter, a Swedish journalist,
noted the irony of the charge, considering that until recently Peng
Jiasheng was always wheeled out to meet foreigner visitors including UN
special envoy Ibrahim Gambari and presented as “a leader of the local
nationals.”

The regime was also well aware of internal conflict among the Kokang
leaders, and when Peng Jiasheng abandoned his headquarters in Laogai, it
quickly put together a pro-regime Kokang faction to challenge the
leadership of the MNDAA. It is a proven regime divide-and-rule tactic that
was used successfully on Karen rebels in 1995.

“They [the junta] will replay the old game—create a proxy group then say
two things: it’s a dispute over drugs and other criminal acts and it has
nothing to do with the Tatamadaw  [the armed forces],” said Min Zin, a
US-based contributor to The Irrawaddy.
China’s role

China has repeatedly called for political stability on the northern border
and for national reconciliation, and it is worried about a migration of
refugees into Chinese territory.

It is difficult to gauge how China will deal with the armed clashes, but
it has offered political support in the past to ethnic Wa, Kachin and
Kokang along the border, while also supporting the junta.

On Thursday, the Secretary 1 of the junta, Gen Tin Aung Myint Oo, met with
the visiting Chinese Deputy Commerce Minister Chen Jian in Naypyidaw.

Brig-Gen Kyaw Hsan, the information minister and an important member of
the junta, met with the Chinese Cultural Counselor Charge d’ Affairs, Gao
Hua, in the capital on Wednesday. Chinese officials were expected to raise
the issue about the conflict along the northern border opposite Yunnan
Province.

It is believed that senior Chinese and Burmese officials continue to hold
meetings in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan, according to sources on the
border.

During the meetings, Chinese officials reportedly have warned their
Burmese counterparts, charging that Burmese soldiers crossed into Chinese
territory this week.

According to the state-run China Daily, Song Qingrun, a senior researcher
with the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, said
that the situation on the border will have no impact on China-Burma
relations.

Song, however, added it will hurt local businesses and border trade as
more than 10,000 Chinese businessmen and workers live in Kokang-controlled
territory where up to 90 percent of the businesses are owned by Chinese.

____________________________________
INTERVIEW

August 28, Irrawaddy
Suu Kyi’s right hand man - Tom Parry

Tom Parry speaks with U Win Tin, a senior member of the National League
for Democracy (NLD) who spent 19 years in prison until his release last
year.

Tom Parry: What has kept you going for so long, considering all your years
in prison?

Win Tin: Well, my opinion is that when you have to face a military
government, you need a little bit of courage, some sort of confrontation,
because if you are always timid and afraid and intimidated, they will step
on you. Sometimes you have to force yourself to be courageous and
outspoken.

Parry: Aren’t you worried about your own security?

Win Tin: People tell me I should keep a low profile because they are very
anxious about my security. You can be snatched back to prison at any time,
but you can’t help it.

Parry: You have made some difficult decisions in your life. If you could
do it again differently, would you?

Win Tin: No, I wouldn’t. You see, formerly I was a journalist and I had no
such difficult dilemmas. I could write and meet people and so on. But when
I became a politician in 1988, things became very difficult. I was not
just joining a political party, I was joining an uprising—a people’s
uprising.

I was one of them. I was one of the journalists who joined them—the whole
country’s uprising. Then, of course, I was dragged away from political
life and sent to prison.

I am now 80 and my health is not very good, but still I don’t mind going
back to prison. I don’t want to be intimidated or reverse my way of
thinking.

Parry: Over the next 10 years, what would be the best thing that could
happen in Burma, and what would be the worst thing?

Win Tin: The best thing that could happen would be if the junta went away
and there was some form of democratic change. Of course, that is the best
scenario.

The worst is that we just go into the election under the terms of the new
constitution, which is more or less a prolongation of military rule. That
would be the worst thing because in the next decade there will be no
change in the lives of ordinary people. That’s why we are calling for a
review of the constitution, at the very least.

We are the ones who have the right to draw up a constitution after the
1990 election. They forgot about us and started convening the National
Convention. Then they drew up this constitution, which only the military
can accept because it prolongs their rule.

Parry: If the elections do happen, how can the NLD make a difference? How
can you stop the continuation of tight military control?

Win Tin: If we stand firm—because we’ve got the people’s support—in the
end, we’ll get the international community’s support.

Now look at the Aung San Suu Kyi case. They tried to snatch her and send
her to prison. And we are making a very loud protest all over the world
and also inside the country. Now the military authorities are rethinking
it.

I think we should try to convince them that if they go on, it won’t last
long. Even after the elections there will be more uprisings. We have to
convince them that this is not the way they should behave.

Parry: Do you think there is any scope for compromise?

Win Tin: Yes, that is possible. That is why we are asking for the release
of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the start of a dialogue.

Parry: Do you think there is any compromise to be had regarding the
constitution?

Win Tin: That is possible, of course, if they agree to the dialogue and if
they agree to make some amendments to the constitution. It is possible the
NLD could participate in the election. That’s the compromise.

It’s very difficult. Of course, they are determined to make the
constitution legal, to ratify the constitution in parliament. They are at
the point of ratification. There are going to be elections, then there
will be a parliament and then the parliament will ratify the constitution.
They feel they are safe.

We don’t want to have another uprising or anything like that. People are
reluctant.

For myself, I am rather hard on the army, I have to admit. But Daw Suu has
a very kind attitude toward the army. They should have negotiations, enter
into a dialogue. But they don’t want to talk with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi,
they don’t want to let her play a role in our national politics.

Parry: These aren’t the elections we all want to see, but after the
elections, do you think they might be more willing to negotiate with her?

Win Tin: But the thing is, you see, after the election is over, the
constitution is in force.

Parry: Forty UN envoys have visited Burma over so many years without
having any effect. The trip by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was also a
failure. What do you think the UN needs to do?

Win Tin: Ban Ki-Moon should say to the Security Council: “We should pick
up the Burma issue. We should take the Burma issue to the Security
Council.”

The last time Burma went to the Security Council was 50 years ago, in
1957/58, when the Chinese occupied Shan State. That’s the only time the
Burma question was sent to the Security Council and they made a
resolution.

In 2007, at the time of the Saffron Revolution, the Burma question was
sent again [but there was no resolution]. What we ask the UN and Ban
Ki-moon to do is put the Burma question to the Security Council again and
request the Chinese and Russian not to use their vetoes.

Parry: Wouldn’t it be better to try and build a consensus on how to push
for the release of political prisoners, how to help encourage a review of
the constitution and help encourage dialogue?

Win Tin: Well, you see, in this situation, when Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is
behind bars and there are more than 2,000 political prisoners in jail, we
have to push harder. If they release all the political prisoners and Daw
Aung San Suu Kyi and make some amendments and make a very amicable
environment, of course we can engage in dialogue and make concessions.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi can do it, because she has the charisma, so people
would accept it. If I made concessions, people wouldn’t accept it.

Parry: It has been a great honor to meet you. Thank you for your time.

Win Tin: The media and those kinds of well-wishers are the only friends we
have now.
Inside we can’t do anything at all and at the same time some people would
like to silence us.

Tom Parry is a freelance journalist based in London. He contributed this
interview to The Irrawaddy.

____________________________________
PRESS RELEASE

August 28, U.S.  C A M P A I G N   F O R   B U R M A
 Massive Flight of Refugees from Burma

Activists Call for Immediate United States Action, End to Crimes Against
Humanity

(Washington, DC) A leading U.S based human rights group today called on
the United States to lead action at the UN Security Council to stop
attacks on ethnic minorities in Burma that have led to the flight of
30,000 refugees from Burma to China in recent days.

"This is the largest refugee flow from Burma in years," said Aung Din,
Executive Director of U.S. Campaign for Burma.  "The United States should
immediately press the United Nations Security Council to intervene to stop
the fighting, and if they don't, it is going to get much worse.  Burma's
regime is going to crush all ethnic minorities who do not submit to their
rule and civilians are going to pay a very heavy price. The UN must
pressure the regime to stop the violence and start negotiating with
democracy forces led by Aung San Suu Kyi, and ethnic representatives for a
peaceful solution."

The cause of the conflict is linked directly to the Burmese military
regime's new constitution, which aims to force all ethnic minorities in
Burma to submit to military rule.  "We have been saying for some time that
the new constitution is a recipe for war and instability and since the
international community has shamefully ignored the situation, now that is
coming true," added Aung Din.

The office of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees has
estimated that 30,000 people have fled from Burma this month.  Yet, to
date, Western governments have largely remained silent on the matter.

The attacks come after a new report commissioned by five of the world's
leading judges and jurists and written by the International Human Rights
Clinic at Harvard Law School, which compiled documentation from existing
United Nations documents showing that Burma's military regime is likely
committing war crimes and crimes against humanity.  The military regime
has destroyed or forced the abandonment of as many villages as in the
Darfur region of Sudan -- yet, the international community has not yet
pursued action on the crimes.  The commissioners included judges who had
earlier served at the International Criminal Tribunals on Rwanda and
Yugoslavia and who now are calling for the UN Security Council to
establish an official inquiry into crimes against humanity and war crimes
in Burma.

At the same time, the governments of the United Kingdom and France have
called for a global arms embargo on Burma's military regime.

The attacks by the military regime are just beginning.  The regime seeks
to stop all ethnic resistance in areas inhabited by millions of people
before elections scheduled for 2010.  "As long as the world sits on its
hands, this is only going to grow much, much worse," added Aung Din.

Contact: Jeremy Woodrum, 202-246-7924