BurmaNet News, September 2, 2009

[Editor]

September 2, 2009 Issue #3789


INSIDE BURMA
Xinhua: S Korea to train Myanmar technicians on nuclear energy
Irrawaddy: Authorities conduct a census of adults in Rangoon
DVB: Burmese troops move into Wa region
New Light of Myanmar: Peace and stability returned to normal in Kokang
region of Shan State (North); Local people who ran away to other country
returning to Kokang region

ON THE BORDER
The Australian: Burma takes on renegade militia
SHAN: Kokang struggle continues

BUSINESS / TRADE
Reuters: Daewoo puts Myanmar gas fields investment at $3 bln

INTERNATIONAL
Republica (Nepal): EU discusses Suu Kyi trial
Houston Press (US): The Burmese come to Houston

OPINION / OTHER
Irrawaddy: Brothers at arms length – Aung Zaw
Bangkok Post: Junta's war on ethnic rebels alarms China – Larry Jagan
Christian Science Monitor: Can you imagine healthcare town halls in North
Korea? – John Hughes



____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

September 2, Xinhua
S Korea to train Myanmar technicians on nuclear energy

YANGON -- South Korea will provide training on nuclear energy to officials
and technicians from Myanmar along with other member countries of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the local weekly Myanmar
Times reported Wednesday.

It was offered by the South Korean government when ASEAN+3 energy
ministers met recently in Myanmar's second largest city of Mandalay, South
Korean embassy here was quoted as disclosing.

The East Asian country agreed to the provision of technical know-how on
nuclear power stations in order to reduce the burning of fossil fuels and
to help protect the environment.

Under a three-year training program which lasts from 2009 to 2011, South
Korea will train a total of 150 technicians and senior government
officials from ASEAN countries including Myanmar, the report added.

The East Asian energy ministers, at a series of meetings with counterparts
from ASEAN nations held in Mandalay, called for deeper and closer regional
energy cooperation and integration, and regional actions to build a
secure, stable and sustainable energy future.
____________________________________

September 2, Irrawaddy
Authorities conduct a census of adults in Rangoon – Lawi Weng

The Burmese authorities have been taking a census of adults in Rangoon
Division, reportedly in preparation for the 2010 general election, sources
in Rangoon said.

An anonymous official who works at Yangon Division Peace and Development
Council told The Irrawaddy that senior officials recently instructed
township authorities to conduct censuses of adults for family lists in
Thingangyun, North and South Okkalapa, Thaketa, Kyauktada and Ahlone
Townships.

However, he refused to say why the censuses were being made.

A resident in Thingangyun Township said, “[The Authorities] are going from
house to house, but they are giving no reason for it.

“They are registering everyone who is 18-years-old or more, but they are
threatening to remove anyone who is absent working abroad from the family
lists,” he said.

Citizens who are removed from their family list cease to exist legally,
making obtaining identification papers and passports very difficult
without paying large sums to be reinstated.

Local authorities in Arakan and Mon states also ordered village headmen to
conduct censuses during August.

Aue Mon, a member of Human Rights Foundation of Monland said that the
authorities in Ye Township, in southern Mon State, ordered village headmen
to conduct the census.

“They ordered every village headman to make proper family lists,” he said.

In Sittwe, capital of Arakan State, the authorities have ordered the
census data to be submitted to the township administration and immigration
departments during September.

The sources believe that the authorities are updating the family lists for
the 2010 general election.

Meanwhile, the Burmese military junta has been conducting a pre-election
campaign in many parts of the country, launching road-building programs
and development projects in local communities such as libraries to gain
local support.

Speaking to journalists in Rangoon, Brig-Gen Aung Thein Linn, the chairman
of the Rangoon City Development Committee, said the Union Solidarity and
Development Association (USDA) members are setting up development programs
in local communities to build trust among people in advance of the
election.

The USDA is preparing to transform itself into a political party for the
2010 general election, according to sources in Rangoon.

A Dala resident said that the USDA recently provided soft loans to poor
people in Dala Township, telling those who received the money to vote for
them,” he said.

The junta will hold elections in 2010, though the election law has yet to
be made public.

Meanwhile people in Rangoon are saying the recent attack on the Kokang
militia in Shan State might be used as a pretext to delay the national
election.

____________________________________

September 2, Democratic Voice of Burma
Burmese troops move into Wa region – Francis Wade

An increase in Burmese troops in a region controlled by Burma’s largest
ceasefire group has been witnessed amid reports that a wanted ethnic
leader has fled to the region.

Tension remains high in Burma’s northeastern Shan state following fighting
between Burmese troops and an ethnic ceasefire group, the Myanmar Peace
and Democracy Front (MPDF).

The MPDF, an alliance of four ceasefire groups from the Kokang special
region of Shan state, was reportedly joined by around 500 troops from the
30,000-strong United Wa State Army (UWSA), Burma’s largest ceasefire
group.

A Wa official told DVB today that numbers of Burmese army troops were
increasing in the Wa region of Shan state.

A UWSA commander, Jia Goh Eng, added that “there might be some activity by
the government army in the Wa region – but it’s a complicated matter to
talk about.”

Some of the 37,000 refugees who fled north across the border into China to
escape fighting have started returning home, many fearing the looting of
their houses and shops.

The fighting broke a 20-year ceasefire agreement between both the Kokang
group and the UWSA, who are thought to receive arms and economic support
from China.

Hong Kong-based Wen Wei Po newspaper said today that the leader of the
MPDF, Peng Jiasheng, had fled Kokang and was currently seeking refuge in
the Wa region. The leader of the UWSA, Bai Youxiang, is said to be close
to Peng Jiasheng.

The conflict, sparked by pressure from the Burmese government on ceasefire
groups to transform into border patrol militias, threatens to spark wider
fighting between the Burmese army and ethnic groups.

All three major ceasefire groups based in northeastern Burma have rejected
the border guard request. The government had also urged the groups to form
political parties in lieu of the 2010 elections.

A spokesperson for the Shan State Army (South), Sai Lao Hseng, said
yesterday that the latest offensive on the Kokang group could “make it
even more difficult for the ceasefire groups to trust the government”.

____________________________________

September 2, New Light of Myanmar
Peace and stability returned to normal in Kokang region of Shan State
(North); Local people who ran away to other country returning to Kokang
region

NAY PYI TAW — Kokang region of Shan State (North) has already become
stable and peaceful as of 29 August.

Until at 6 pm on 1 September, a total of 5,811 local people who had run
away to the other country returned to Laukkai through Yanlonkyaing and
Chinshwehaw border gates. The region is now in a stable condition and
administrative machinery has become normal.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

September 2, The Australian
Burma takes on renegade militia – Michael Sainsbury

Nansan, China – A FRESH round of warfare was threatening to break out in
Burma last night as the military junta prepared to attack a second
ethnic-minority militia that was well armed with weapons, some supplied by
China.

The tensions on the Burma-China border escalated amid claims 500 people
may have been killed in fighting between Burma's military junta and the
Kokang ethnic minority last week - hundreds more than official estimates.

After its defeat of the Kokang, there were fears Burma's military may
attack a second militia force - the United Wa Army - as early as today.

Fresh fighting would represent a failure of frantic shuttle diplomacy
between Beijing and Naypyidaw since the fierce fighting on the border last
week.

A Burmese delegation led by Deputy Home Minister Phone Swe met the Chinese
Minister for Public Security, Meng Jianzhu, in China on Monday, reports
said.

Officials in China's southwestern Yunnan province have said 37,000
refugees streamed into their country after days of fighting between the
Kokang and the Burmese junta. Fearing a second wave of attacks, up to 3000
refugees, including many Chinese nationals, have crossed into China at the
border towns of Mengka and Qingshuihe. Ten thousand more are expected if
Burma attacks the Wa.

Unlike the Kokang, whose regular militia numbered between 1000 and 3000
defending themselves with ageing weapons, the United Wa Army is the
region's largest militia with about 25,000 troops. The Wa have reportedly
been acquiring surface-to-air missiles and have a factory producing AK47s.

China has strengthened its porous border with Burma's northern Shan state
in the past week, and yesterday The Australian witnessed scores of
security vehicles heading to Mengka from various garrisons across Yunnan.

Burma wants the ethnic minorities to disband their armies but the groups
have refused. The Wa territory in Burma shares a 200km border with China.
The group is viewed as the largest producer of methamphetamines in the
region. The drug rivals heroin as the most popular narcotic made in
Southeast Asia's Golden Triangle.

Wa refugees and Chinese nationals in Burma are crossing the border and
being housed in Mengka. Locals told The Australian that about 3000
refugees were in Mengka already as thousands of Burmese troops streamed
into the country's northern Shan state.

Chinese citizens stranded in the remote border town of Nansan in Yunnan
province have called on Beijing for humanitarian aid and for the
international community to step in.

The majority of Burmese nationals, including the largely ethnic Chinese
Kokang, have returned to Burma but thousands of Chinese have been stranded
in China.

Burma's border regions have for decades been the scene of fighting between
ethnic armies and the ruling military, conflicts that have displaced
hundreds of thousands of people.

Burma is largely estranged from the West, but China has maintained close
economic and diplomatic ties with the junta, ensuring Beijing access to
its neighbour's vast mineral wealth.

Large numbers of Chinese citizens have migrated to Burma for business, and
major Chinese state companies are big investors in Burma's oil and gas
industries.

Although their relationship has largely been built on China's policy of
non-intervention in its allies' affairs, Beijing may try to persuade Burma
to hold its fire to ensure border stability ahead of the October 1
celebrations of the 60th anniversary of Communist China, said Lai-Ha Chan,
a researcher on China at the University of Technology, Sydney.

____________________________________

September 2, Shan Herald Agency for News
Kokang struggle continues

The Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), better known as the
Kokang Army, is still fighting in southern Kokang with its ally the Wa, a
Kokang insider said.

The down-sized armed group is led by Peng Daxun, Peng Jiasheng’s son. “He
is still very active in the area stretching from Kunlong to Qingsuihe,”
the source said.

“Proof? What more proof do you need when the Burmese Army was unable to
evacuate over 100 aid workers and their family members out of Laogai
yesterday?”

The road from Laogai wends through Qingsuihe in the southeast and goes
westward to Kunlong. The aid workers are from the World Food Program
(WFP), Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and several NGOs, he
said.

His report is yet to be confirmed independently.

Meanwhile, about 4,000 refugees have returned home on August 31, reported
AP. “The border situation is returning to normal,” agencies report China’s
Public Security Ministry as saying.

On the same day, some senior Burmese officers were reported to have
visited Mongla. “They explained to us that what happened in Kokang was an
internal affair, where the Burmese Army had tried in vain to mediate,” a
source close to Mongla, one of Kokang’s principal ally, quoted an officer
as saying, “ Of course, they think we’re stupid.”

The junta officers, coming from Kengtung, 80 km southwest of Mongla and
the capital of Shan State East, also inquired about three of their
officers believed to be missing in the Hsaleu territory under the control
of Mongla. The three were said to be from Infantry Battalion 279 based in
Mongyang, near Hsaleu, where Mongla’s 369th Brigade is headquartered.
“Only one of them, a sergeant has returned,” according to the Burmese
officers.

Mongla had earlier deported more than 470 Burmans suspected of spying.

The National Democratic Alliance Army – Eastern Shan State (NDAA-ESS), as
the Mongla group calls itself, believes it is next on the Burmese Army’s
hit list after Kokang. The group’s leader Sai Leun aka Lin Mingxian is
Kokang supreme leader Peng Jiasheng’s son-in-law.

The United Wa State Army (UWSA), wedged between Kokang in the north and
Mongla in the south, might be the next to go, according to some analysts.

However, Sao Yawdserk, leader of the anti-Naypyitaw Shan State Army (SSA)
South, viewed it differently. During an interview with Thai PBS Television
yesterday, he said he believed No. 1 on the list would be Mongla followed
by the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and UWSA. “We (the SSA) will be the
last,” he told Thai PBS.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

September 2, Reuters
Daewoo puts Myanmar gas fields investment at $3 bln

SEOUL - South Korea's Daewoo International (047050.KS: Quote, Profile,
Research, Stock Buzz) said on Wednesday a consortium led by the energy
developing company will invest 4 trillion won ($3.2 billion) to develop
Myanmar gas fields.

The gas development plan will allow the consortium to supply natural gas
to China's top state oil and gas firm, China National Petroleum Corp
(CNPC) for 30 years, with a peak daily production of 500 million cubic
feet, or about 3.8 million tonnes annually.

Daewoo spokesman Lee Bong-ju said by telephone that the investment would
reach 4 trillion won, correcting the previous figure of $5.6 billion given
by an unnamed official of Korea Gas Corp (036460.KS: Quote, Profile,
Research, Stock Buzz), a member of the consortium. [ID:nSEO55947]

The supply, due from 2013 from the Shwe and ShwePhyu fields in Myanmar's
A-1 offshore block and Mya field in A-3 offshore block, amounts to around
7 percent of China's current gas consumption of 7.3 billion cubic feet per
day and is expected to grow rapidly.

Daewoo has a 51 percent stake in the consortium and the other shareholders
are India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC.BO: Quote, Profile, Research,
Stock Buzz) with 17 percent, Myanmar Oil & Gas Enterprise with 15 percent,
India's GAIL (GAIL.BO: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) with 8.5
percent, and Korea Gas Corp with 8.5 percent.

($1=1245.1 Won)

(Reporting by Kim Yeon-hee; Editing by Ben Tan)

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

September 2, Republica (Nepal)
EU discusses Suu Kyi trial

KATHMANDU – The European Union Political and Security Committee (PSC) that
met in Brussels discussed the situation in Burma with particular reference
to the champion of democracy Aung San Suu Kyi, who was recently brought to
trial.

A press statement issued by EU on Wednesday quoted ambassador Olof Skoog
of Sweden as saying, "There is a great concern in EU about the fate of
Aung San Suu Kyi. We must have a clear view about the measures that EU
would want to take targeting the Burmese regime if the verdict is a
negative one." The EU Member States are represented in the PSC at
ambassador level.

In the first month of the Swedish presidency of the EU, the committee has
discussed the situation in Iraq following the elections, the EU´s
involvement in Somalia and the European Union monitoring mission in
Georgia (EUMM). In the past month, the PSC has worked to make the EU´s
work in the area of human rights more visible, the statement added.

The PSC is responsible for charting out the EU´s Common Foreign and
Security Policy (CFSP) and the European Security and Defense Policy
(ESDP). The committee is constantly monitoring the international
situation. Among other things, the Committee oversees the EU´s crisis
management operations all over the world on a daily basis and prepares for
the Council meetings of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs.

____________________________________

September 2, Houston Press (US)
The Burmese come to Houston – Mike Giglio

Inside the urban jungle of southwest Houston there is an apartment complex
like any other. Laundry dries from identical balconies stacked three at a
time. The units are modest and slightly damp, and some have cockroaches.
There is a pool.

Beyond the thick iron gate that surrounds the complex, strange things are
afoot. Men wear dresses. Women, with tan swirls of makeup on their cheeks,
squat along the sidewalk, or near a drain in the grass, sifting ants from
a mound of white rice. Bright parasols dot the parking lot on hot
afternoons. One resident calls Sun Blossom Mountain, on Ranchester Drive,
his first glimpse of home since fleeing from Burma 16 years ago.

The refugees have even built a court for chinlone, their favorite sport.
In a shady corner between two trees they strung a net, as if for
badminton, but players use their feet to volley a small ball of woven
palms carried over from a camp in Thailand. A chiseled man wearing only
underwear jumps at the net and, with his heel, spikes the ball across and
into the dirt.

More than 100 Burmese families now live at Sun Blossom Mountain and its
sister complex across the street. A new family seems to appear every week.

They are entering what refugee workers describe as a "perfect storm" in
the U.S. resettlement program. It is outdated and drastically underfunded,
and the economy that for so long propped it up has sunk into a recession.
At the same time, refugees are arriving in ever greater numbers —
especially in Houston.

Following its success with the thousands of Vietnamese who fled here after
the fall of Saigon, the city has been a magnet for the masses of refugees
the United States resettles every year, which is approaching 75,000 this
year. It has an abundance of jobs and affordable housing, along with a
reputation as a welcoming international city. Since the turn of the
century, nearly 1,600 have arrived annually at George Bush
Intercontinental Airport, bleary and unsure if someone from one of the
local resettlement agencies will pick them up as promised. There are
Iraqis and Afghans, Somalis and Cubans, Burundians from Rwanda and
Bhutanese scattered across the city for another chance at life.

The bulk of new faces are Burmese, part of America's new focus on what it
considers especially vulnerable groups. In late 2006, it began taking in
large numbers of the between one and two million people who have escaped
from the frightening military dictatorship in Burma (also known as
Myanmar) and into Thai refugee camps or Malaysian cities. Roughly 2,200
have come to Houston over the last three years.

Phe Bu Reh arrived with his wife and three sons on June 2. It was their
first time inside a city. Phe Bu, like most incoming Burmese, is not from
the educated class forced out as political dissidents in the past. He grew
up in the hills of Kaya, one of several ethnic states against which the
Burmese military wages perpetual war. He was caught sending food to
starving rebels and escaped into the jungle, where he joined a party
furtively making its way to the border. Three women gave birth during the
slow and nervous trip. For the next eight years, Phe Bu lived in a
patchwork bamboo hut inside a Thai refugee camp. He met his wife there.

Phe Bu can have little contact with his old home. His father, overwhelmed
by constant interrogation, has become a monk. To resettle in America, a
refugee must show that he cannot return to his home country or stay in his
current one. Even his camp, which Phe Bu was not allowed to leave, came
under attack by Burmese troops. Now he is safe. But he must quickly adjust
to life in America and get on his feet.

Refugees once received 36 months of financial support as they learned the
language and culture and searched for work. That fell to 22, 18, 12 and
finally eight. The funds that cover the first month — including rent and
utilities, food, furniture and case management — are at $900, half of what
experts recommend. Rent assistance in Houston lasts four to six months,
depending on what agencies can afford.

Refugees receive food stamps and eight months of Medicaid and modest cash
assistance from the government. They must take health tests and vaccines
and learn to speak English, ride the bus, shop and throw out the trash.
Their children enroll at school. They must get social security numbers,
identification and work permits — and then, most importantly, find jobs
and become self-sufficient before it's time to pay the rent. To navigate
this complex process, they depend on one of four major resettlement
agencies in Houston to which refugees are assigned (the Alliance for
Multicultural Community Services, Catholic Charities, Interfaith
Ministries and YMCA International).

For years, agencies across the country have used private funds, unpaid
overtime and volunteers to patch together a system that before the
recession was typically able to find jobs for more than 80 percent of
refugees after six months. Those numbers are plummeting — to as low as 20
percent at one national agency, the International Rescue Committee, which
Bob Carey, its vice president of resettlement and migration policy,
expects is more or less the situation at most. In some states, refugees
are becoming homeless.

"It was a little bit unrealistic in a strong economy. In the current
situation, it's next to impossible," says Carey, who also chairs the
advocacy coalition Refugee Council USA. "Refugees have had a great history
of success. I think that's been taken for granted."

Houston has fared better than most cities, and so its share of refugees is
increasing — 2,000 arrived in the first three quarters of the fiscal year
alone. But jobs are drying up here as well. As clients need longer and
more intensive help, agencies and their small staffs are scrambling to
keep up, and refugees are being increasingly left to piece together their
new lives on their own. For some, the experience is nothing like they
expected.

"We're introducing people to America. And we'd like to introduce them to
the America that we'd like America to be," says Aaron Tate, the
resettlement director at Interfaith. "But the truth is, we have to
introduce them to the America that's really there."

Phe Bu was told he had four months to pay his rent, and that work was
scarce in Houston. It was in a panic that, less than two months after he
arrived, he saw a sign with a word he recognized — "job" — on a wall in
the Alliance offices and went to his caseworker, Ko Ko Naing.

For more, visit:
http://www.houstonpress.com/2009-09-03/news/the-burmese-come-to-houston/1

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

September 2, Irrawaddy
Brothers at arms length – Aung Zaw

Recent clashes along the Sino-Burmese border have fueled speculation that
the bonds between Beijing and Naypyidaw may be weakening. But seen from an
historical perspective, what this episode really demonstrates is the
deep-seated ambivalence that has always characterized relations between
these two very disparate countries.

In the six decades that they have existed as modern, independent nations,
Burma and China have been friends and enemies—and often both at once.

Ironically, when they first emerged on the world stage, it was China, not
Burma, that was regarded as the international pariah. That made it all the
more significant, then, when Burma became the first country outside the
Communist bloc to recognize the People’s Republic of China in 1949.

Rangoon was also the first to conclude a Treaty of Friendship and Mutual
Non-Aggression with Beijing in 1961, the same year that Burma became the
first of China’s neighbors to reach a boundary settlement.

A decade later, Burma’s U Thant, then Secretary General of the United
Nations, played an instrumental role in securing China a seat in the UN.
He could hardly have dreamed that long after his death, China would repay
this favor by using its status as a permanent member of the UN Security
Council to protect the repressive military regime now ruling Burma.

When Gen Ne Win seized power in 1962, relations with China took a dramatic
turn for the worse. For the next 26 years, Ne Win and his commanders
struggled to crush a Chinese-backed communist insurgency in northern
Burma.

Burmese communists were not only allowed to denounce the Ne Win regime
from Chinese soil; they also enjoyed substantial military and financial
aid from Beijing. The Chinese provided the Burmese communists with
military and political training and helped to set up a radio station to
air anti-Ne Win propaganda everyday.

Some Burmese communist leaders even lived in Beijing, where they were
given stipends, free housing and housekeepers.

When Chinese leaders held state receptions in Beijing in the 1970s,
Burmese communist leaders sat with Chinese leaders on the stage, while
official Burmese delegations were left to mingle in the crowd. This
angered some Burmese diplomats so much that they wanted to refuse to
attend official functions hosted by China’s Communist leaders. But Ne Win
insisted they remain on friendly terms with the Chinese.

Why? Perhaps Ne Win calculated that he had to maintain some semblance of
friendship with Burma’s most powerful neighbor. Indeed, he often flew to
China for official visits and in return his government usually received
aid and support.

But Ne Win did not always feel a need to please China.

In 1967, he unleashed his anger toward Chinese in Burma. Anti-Chinese
riots broke out in June as the Ministry of Education banned the wearing of
“unauthorized badges” by students. The order was aimed primarily at
students of ethnic Chinese origin wearing Mao badges.

Burmese demonstrators attacked the Chinese embassy in Rangoon and over
1,000 Chinese in Rangoon were detained and many went into hiding. The
Burmese regime said 50 Chinese were killed in the violence, but Chinese
officials said the deaths numbered in the hundreds.

Why did Ne Win, who was half-Chinese himself, unleash these anti-Chinese
riots? Was it because communist radio called him a fascist? Some analysts
say that the anti-Chinese riots were stirred up to deflect attention from
acute rice shortages.

Whatever the reason, the violence did not inflict any permanent damage to
Sino-Burmese relations. After the violence had died down, Ne Win and
Beijing were back on friendly terms.

In spite of fierce battles between Burmese and communist troops along the
border, in November 1975, Ne Win visited China again and reached an
agreement that there would be no “aggressive acts” between the two
nations.

Beijing finally ended its support of the Burmese communists in the late
1980s. In 1989, the Communist Party of Burma collapsed, and China has been
a powerful friend of the current repressive regime ever since.

Now the conflict along the Chinese border could reach a boiling point and
could be bloody if the regime decides to attack Wa and other ethnic
armies. An open conflict with ethnic armies, particularly with the Wa,
could drive thousands of refugees to China and Thailand.

China has asked the Burmese to restore stability and peace on the border.
The recent attacks on Chinese living in Kokang and on the Kokang ceasefire
group demonstrated that China’s influence on Burma is limited.

When Vice Snr-Gen Maung Aye visited Beijing in June, he reportedly
informed Chinese leaders that the army was prepared to launch attacks on
ethnic groups along the Sino-Burmese border. Chinese leaders, including
Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, asked the battle-hardened general to find a
peaceful solution.

The Burmese general, who was known to harbor ill feelings toward the Wa
and Kokang groups because of their involvement in the drug trade and
building of arms factories, did not listen. As soon as he returned to
Burma, he went to the Chinese border and began to prepare for war.

Why? The generals know that China, which remains a major arms supplier, is
heavily dependant on Burma’s natural resources and plans to build a gas
pipeline project through the country. With its strategic interests in the
Bay of Bengal, Beijing isn’t going to cut ties with Naypyidaw anytime
soon.

It seems the generals are determined to expand their influence on the
border and push to disarm ethnic armies and local private armies before
the election in 2010.

As in the past, relations between Burma and China have hit a rough patch.
But more than ever before, they realize they need each other. The Burmese
regime seems to want to show that although it is a friend of China, it is
not Beijing’s puppet.

____________________________________

September 2, Bangkok Post
Junta's war on ethnic rebels alarms China – Larry Jagan

Military operations by the Burmese junta along its border with China in
the past few weeks have sent tensions soaring, after thousands of ethnic
minorities from Burma fled for their lives.

The Burmese army's recent offensive against the ethnic rebel group Kokang,
who call themselves the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (or
MNDAA), has also shocked Beijing and rocked their normally very close
relations.

Fears that the fighting could spread and explode into renewed civil war
has led to a flurry of urgent diplomatic actvity by Beijing, as the
Chinese government tries to stabilise the situation before it gets out of
hand.

Senior Chinese security officials, including Meng Jian, the powerful
minister for public security, have just toured the border area to assess
the situation and plot the Chinese reaction.

But the whole affair casts a long shadow over what has been taken by many
to be a rock-hard relationsip. It is now increasingly evident that a
significant rift exits between the two countries that could have crucial
implications for other countries in the region, and for any approach which
the international community may take to encourage the Burmese military
regime to introduce real political change.

The implications of this growing divergence could have a significant
effect on the border region, as the most powerful of the ethnic groups -
especially the Kachin, Kokang and Wa - in this area have ceasefire
agreements with the Burmese junta, but also have traditionally close ties
with the Chinese authorities.

Economically and culturally the area is closer to China than to the
Burmese regime. Thousands of Chinese businessmen and workers have migrated
into northern Shan State over the last decade, seeking employment and
economic opportunities. Many of these ethnic leaders go to Chinese
hospital across the border for medical treatent and send their children to
school in China. The Chinese language and even the Chinese currency, the
renminbi, are used throughout the Kokang and Wa areas in Burma's northern
Shan State.

Anything which forces Beijing to choose between their ethnic brothers
inside Burma - the Kokang and Wa are ethnically Chinese - and the central
government in Naypidaw will cause the superpower immense problems. And in
the end will bring into sharp focus the real nature of the Burma-China
axis.

Alarmed and surprised by the Burmese military offensive, Beijing has
already sent hundreds of extra troops and armed policemen to the area to
quell any potential violence. The Chinese central authorities are very
upset by the effect of the Burmese military action along the border, and
are furious that they were not informed before-hand, according to a senior
Chinese government official who requested anonymity.

A senior diplomat flew last week to Naypidaw, the Burmese junta's
headquarters and the country's new capital, to convey Beijing's
displeasure. Burma has apologised for the instability caused across the
Chinese border region, according to Burmese foreign ministry officials.
But the Chinese authorities remain anxious about further fallout from the
offensive against the Kokang.

The operations were aimed at capturing a Kokang arms factory, the Burmese
leaders told their Chinese envoys. But analysts remain sceptical and
believe this was, at best, a pretext.

"The junta knows it must move to disarm these ethnic rebel groups, and the
Kokang are the weakest militarily," said Win Min, the Burmese academic and
military specialist at Chiang Mai University in Thailand.

The Kokang are ethnically Chinese and speak a Mandarin dialect, but have
lived for many decades inside Burma. They have their own armed militia and
had been fighting the Burmese army for several decades demanding autonomy
until they agreed to a truce with the Burmese military regime in 1989.

Tensions have been rising in Burma's border areas for months, as the
military junta pressurred the ethnic cease-fire groups - particularly the
Kachin, Kokang and Wa - to surrender their arms before the planned
elections next year. The Burmese government wants to integrate them into a
Border Police guard but these key ethnic groups along the Chinese border
have been resisting the move.

At the weekend, international NGOs reported more than 30,000 refugees had
fled to China in the part week to escape the fighting. Since then the
fighting seems to have subsided and refugees have begun to trickle back to
the Kokang capital of Lougai which is on the border and which is firmly
under the control of the Burmese army. Once a bustling border town full of
bars, discos, karaoke clubs, massage parlours and gambling dens, the town
centre is still virtually deserted and many buildings have been damaged.

"More confrontation and military encounters are expected in the following
days and thousands of villagers are fleeing across the border [into China]
to avoid the war, and subsequent human rights abuses," said a statement
from the Kokang group, sent to the Bangkok Post. The 23-year-old
cease-fire agreement between the Burmese junta and the Kokang seems to be
effectively ended, according to Burmese dissidents based in the Chinese
town of Ruili not far from where the Kokang refugees crossed the border.

"This does not augur well for the other ceasefire groups like the Kachin
and Wa," said Mr Win Min. "This may be a preview of what is to come."

For more, please visit:
http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/23087/junta-war-on-ethnic-rebels-alarms-china

____________________________________

September 2, Christian Science Monitor
Can you imagine healthcare town halls in North Korea? – John Hughes

Provo, Utah - For weeks now, members of Congress, cabinet officers, and
even President Obama have been holding packed town-hall meetings on
proposed healthcare reforms. Citizens have turned out in the thousands to
listen and ask tough questions. Groups outside, both supportive and
critical, wave placards and argue with one another.

Some critics tut-tut about all this, finding it unseemly. Indeed, there
have been a few raucous and impolite moments. However, what we have been
witnessing is a grand spectacle of democracy in action.

When the American president vows to make critical decisions of national
consequence he cannot do so by fiat. He must garner support from a
Congress of different political parties, and differing views within those
parties. Legislators in turn must listen to hometown voters, millions of
people of differing economic status; different ethnic and racial
backgrounds, religions, and political persuasions. If the president and
legislators are not sensitive to these views, the voters throw them out at
the next election.

All this goes on under the ­eagle-eyed scrutiny of a free press. Panelists
on TV political talk shows criticize whomever they will. The military
remains in its barracks, with not a whiff of a coup or a march upon the
White House.

I hope North Korea's Kim Jong-il, Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei, and Gen. Than
Shwe in Burma (Myanmar) are paying attention to this. They each run a
government about as undemocratic as one can imagine. Elections there are
tragic shams. When their people protest, their soldiers, secret police,
and hired thugs beat the questioners back and throw the survivors in jail
as political prisoners.

There is a dialogue in the US foreign-affairs community about the wisdom,
or otherwise, of "engaging" with such brutal leaders. The undecided
question is whether such engagement can nudge these tyrants in the
direction of reform and a better life for their citizens or whether it
simply gives them an aura of undeserved respectability.

Two interesting cases of such engagement have taken place while the US has
been practising its own brand of democracy at home.

In early August, former President Clinton flew to North Korea on a
"private" mission to secure the release of two American journalists
sentenced to 12 years of hard labor for a relatively minor offense.

Days later, Sen. Jim Webb (D) of Virginia flew to Burma to secure the
release of an eccentric American sentenced to seven years of prison and
hard labor for violating the house arrest of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung
San Suu Kyi.

She is the political opponent of the ruling military junta, having spent
14 of the past 20 years under arrest. Although Ms. Suu Kyi played no role
in the American's arrival at her lakeside home, she was sentenced to three
years hard labor, commuted to 18 months of additional house arrest –
conveniently timed to isolate her during planned elections next year.
Senator Webb was also accorded the rare privilege of meeting with Suu Kyi
and Than Shwe.

While these North Korea and Burma humanitarian missions were cast as
nongovernmental, they could not have taken place without some fairly
intensive back-channel greasing beforehand. Nor do such diplomatic forays
take place without both sides having a good idea beforehand of what the
outcome will be. The United States got its imprisoned Americans back. The
leaders of North Korea and Burma got a lot of international visibility.

Meanwhile, the government in Iran is challenged by a newly ­emboldened
opposition that has survived harsh attempts to muzzle it. From abroad it
faces an edgy Israel, and a US president who says his patience will be
running thin by year's end if the Tehran regime has not set its face
against acquiring nuclear weaponry. It is a good bet that some secret
back-channel "engagement" is going on somewhere between Tehran and
Washington.

Political currents may be changing in North Korea, Burma, and Iran. But we
should not anticipate their leaders soon setting up town-hall meetings and
asking their people for tough questions.
John Hughes, a former editor of the Monitor, writes a biweekly column for
the Monitor's weekly edition.