BurmaNet News, October 1, 2009

[Editor]

October 1, 2009 Issue #3810


INSIDE BURMA
AFP: Suu Kyi lawyers hopeful for Myanmar appeal

ON THE BORDER
New York Times: Myanmar drug trade surges along Thai border
Irrawaddy: Chinese authorities seek damages from junta
Irrawaddy: Kachin, junta deadlock in guard force talks
Narinjara News: Life in prison for smuggling fertilizer to Burma


REGIONAL
SHAN: Bangkok to hold international Shan talk

INTERNATIONAL
VOA: US diplomat outlines Obama approach on Burma
Cybercast News Service (USA): U.S. Senator pushing to lift sanctions
against Burma did not invite junta opponents to the hearing
DVB: US policy to Burma ‘must focus on people’

OPINION / OTHER
Boston Globe (USA): Human rights: Don’t go wobbly on Burma’s junta –
Editorial
Transnational Institute: Burma’s cease-fire groups: Peace & security
briefing #1 – Tom Kramer




____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

October 1, Agence France Presse
Suu Kyi lawyers hopeful for Myanmar appeal

Yangon — Lawyers for Myanmar opposition icon Aung San Suu Kyi said
Thursday they were "hoping for the best" as they braced for a court ruling
on the Nobel laureate's appeal against her extended house arrest.

Judges are set to announce on Friday whether they will uphold the
pro-democracy leader's conviction over an incident in which an American
man swam uninvited to her house, earning her an extra 18 months in
detention.

"Of course we are hoping for the best," said Nyan Win, her lawyer and
spokesman for her National League for Democracy (NLD) party.

"We have prepared what we need. The result will depend on the court and we
are hoping for the immediate release of Daw Suu," he told AFP. Daw is a
term of respect in Myanmar.

The military-ruled country faces intense international pressure to free
Suu Kyi, especially from the United States, which Wednesday held the
highest-level talks with Myanmar in nearly a decade.

The Obama administration's decision to re-engage with Myanmar comes after
years of stalemate proved unproductive but Washington has warned against
lifting sanctions until the junta moves on democracy.

"Lifting or easing sanctions at the outset of a dialogue without
meaningful progress on our concerns would be a mistake," said Kurt
Campbell, the US assistant secretary of state for Asian affairs, who met
the Myanmar delegation.

He said the US side laid out clear demands for the regime, including
freeing political prisoners such as Suu Kyi.

But a western diplomat based in Bangkok, speaking to AFP on condition of
anonymity, doubted this would affect the appeal.

"Everybody has big expectations but it's not going to result in immediate
action. They are not going to give away their best asset so easily after
one meeting -- I highly doubt it," the diplomat said.

"My personal guess is they will delay it or refuse (the appeal). I don't
think we'll get any big news tomorrow. It's not really been a topic of
great attention," the diplomat added.

Suu Kyi has spent most of the past two decades under house arrest. Her NLD
won the country's last elections in 1990, which the ruling generals
refused to acknowledge, leading the US and European Union to impose
sanctions on Myanmar.

Her extended house arrest now keeps Suu Kyi off the scene for elections
promised by the regime for 2010, adding to widespread criticism that the
polls are a sham designed to legitimise the junta's grip on power.

In August a court at Yangon's notorious Insein prison originally sentenced
the frail 64-year-old to three years' hard labour but junta chief Than
Shwe reduced that to 18 months house arrest.

Two female assistants living with Suu Kyi received the same sentence and
have also appealed.

John Yettaw, the eccentric American who triggered the debacle by swimming
to her lakeside mansion in May, was sentenced to seven years' hard labour
but the regime freed him following a visit by US Senator Jim Webb.

In September the junta released a batch of political activists as part of
an amnesty for more than 7,000 prisoners.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

October 1, New York Times
Myanmar drug trade surges along Thai border – Thomas Fuller

Doi Chang Moob, Thailand — For more than half a century heroin has been
carried over the jungle-shrouded hills here, the first leg of a journey
that delivers the drugs to cities as far off as Sydney and Vancouver,
Canada. But anti-narcotics officials are rubbing their eyes at the
spectacle they are now witnessing: a flood of heroin and methamphetamines
is spilling across from Myanmar as traffickers slash their inventories in
a panicked sell-off.

“It’s a clearance sale,” said Pornthep Eamprapai, director of the northern
branch of the Thai Office of Narcotics Control, who has nearly three
decades of experience tracking illicit drugs from Myanmar. “Some dealers
at the border are buying on credit. They don’t even need to pay in cash.
This is the first time I’ve seen this.”

Heroin seizures by the police in northern Thailand have increased more
than 2,100 percent from last year: in the 10 months to August, the
authorities seized 1,268 kilograms, or 2,795 pounds, of heroin, up from 57
kilograms a year earlier, according to the Office of Narcotics Control.

The main reason for the rise in trafficking, officials say, is the
deteriorating political situation in the northernmost regions of Myanmar.
Ahead of the introduction of a new constitution next year, Myanmar’s
military government is cracking down on armed ethnic groups arrayed along
the borders with Thailand, Laos and China. The ethnic groups, many of
which have a long history of producing a range of illicit drugs, are
steeling themselves for battle with the Myanmar junta and rushing to
convert their stocks of heroin and methamphetamines into cash to buy
weapons.

“Various traffickers are liquidating their stockpiles,” said Pamela Brown,
an agent for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration based in Chiang Mai,
Thailand. “They are trying to get large shipments of heroin out, and some
have been successful.”

The ethnic groups are obscure to most outsiders — the Wa, Kachin and Shan,
among them — but the fate of these groups is crucial to the future of the
world’s heroin supply, experts say.

In the rugged northern hills of Myanmar, manufacturing drugs is sometimes
the only reliable way to generate cash.

The standoff in northern Myanmar between ethnic groups and the central
government is an anomaly in modern Asia, a throwback to much more unstable
times. The Wa and Kachin have large, well-equipped armies and
administrations akin to the small kingdoms that existed in Asia before
European colonial powers introduced the concept of the nation state.

Now, in a desperate bid to protect their fiefdoms, the ethnic groups are
casting a wide net for more weapons, according to Col. Peeranate Katetem,
the deputy commander of a Thai special anti-narcotic unit based in the
northern Thai city of Chiang Rai. Three months ago, he received a call
from a Wa representative who said he was looking to spend about $25
million to purchase M-16 assault rifles and “anything capable of
exploding.” Colonel Peeranate said the group appeared eager to barter
heroin for the weapons. He said he declined to help.

The Myanmar junta and its proxies beat back ethnic Karen rebels in June
and attacked and defeated an ethnic-Chinese group, the Kokang, in August.
This has left the leadership of other ethnic groups wondering if they are
next.

The Golden Triangle, as this region is known, was once the world’s
pre-eminent source of heroin. In recent years, it has produced around 5
percent of the world’s supply of the drug, eclipsed by Afghanistan, which
now produces the lion’s share.

That could change, experts warn, if Myanmar’s dormant civil war re-ignites.

“The drug trade would flourish,” said Ko-Lin Chin, a criminologist at
Rutgers University and author of a book on the Golden Triangle published
this year. Mr. Chin believes the planting of opium poppies, now suppressed
in many areas, could resume on a wider scale. “They would flood the world
with opium.”

Heroin, which is refined from opium, typically travels through Thailand,
Laos and Vietnam and ends up in Australia, Japan, Malaysia and Taiwan,
anti-narcotic agents say. Heroin is also directly exported to China, where
use of the drug increased dramatically in the 1990s, creating a huge new
market for traffickers. The heroin sold in the United States mostly comes
from Colombia, according to U.S. officials.

Stopping drug traffickers is particularly difficult along Myanmar’s
borders, which are mountainous and criss-crossed by jungle footpaths. The
Thai military has about 1,500 troops dedicated to the interdiction of
narcotics along the northern stretch of border with Myanmar, but it says
it needs better equipment, including night vision goggles.

Trafficking in recent years has become atomized: Drug runners once crossed
the border in heavily armed groups of a dozen men. “Now it’s like a small
parade of ants,” Colonel Peeranate said. “They disperse to different
points.”

At the Doi Chang Moob military outpost here, Second Lt. Rungrot Lobbamrung
says he goes to sleep knowing that the hills below his sleeping quarters
will be humming with traffickers nearly every night.

He and his team of 23 soldiers set ambushes for traffickers, analyze
footprints along remote paths and cultivate intelligence sources among the
hill tribes that populate the area. They are paid bonuses for the drugs
they seize. But Lieutenant Rungrot guesses that they catch only a small
fraction of the drug traffic.

So far this year, he has stopped 14 traffickers, compared with 5 last year.

The monetary temptations for traffickers are great: Small-time
traffickers, often teenagers, can buy a fingernail-size bag of heroin for
about $1.50 on the Myanmar side of the border, trek a few hours and sell
it for up to $30 on the Thai side, Lieutenant Rungrot said.

Anti-narcotics officials say ethnic groups appear to be stocking large
quantities of drugs near the Thai border and sending a series of smaller
packages across.

The Myanmar military, which in the past has sometimes turned a blind eye
to trafficking because it benefited its allies or was profitable for
certain military officers, now has added incentive to crack down on the
drug trade: the prospect of meeting ethnic groups equipped with
drug-financed weapons on the battlefield.

Anti-narcotics officials based in Thailand say the Myanmar authorities
have reported enormous drug seizures in recent months, including one in
August of 760 kilograms. Several million methamphetamine pills were also
seized in the Myanmar border town of Tachilek.

“There was nothing on that scale last year,” said Leik Boonwaat, the
representative of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime based in
Laos. “This year has been quite unusual.”

Also, in what would be a major shift in the global heroin trade, Thai
anti-narcotics officials say they have become aware of a new heroin
trafficking route that may help to explain the increase in heroin coming
through the Golden Triangle.

Low-grade heroin produced in Afghanistan is being shipped through Pakistan
and India to the area controlled by the Wa in northern Myanmar, where it
is further refined and re-exported.

This possible link between the world’s two largest heroin producing
regions — Afghanistan and Myanmar — combines the vast scale of Afghan
poppy fields with the distribution networks and technological expertise of
the Wa, whose chemists are renowned for producing high-quality heroin.

In recent years the Wa have been concerned about their international
image, especially in light of an indictment four years ago of eight Wa
leaders by a U.S. court that described the Wa army as “a criminal
narcotics trafficking organization.” Under pressure from China, the Wa
banned farmers in their territory from cultivating opium. (It is now
principally grown in adjacent territories controlled by other groups.)But
the concern about public relations could quickly dissipate in crisis, Mr.
Chin said. “If there’s war, nobody cares about a good international
reputation,” he said. “Survival will take over.”
____________________________________

October 1, Irrawaddy
Chinese authorities seek damages from junta – Ko Htwe

Local authorities in Lincang, a region in southwestern China bordering
Burma, have demanded 280 million yuan (US $41 million) in compensation
from the Burmese regime for loss of property incurred during a junta
offensive in Kokang in late August.

According to a source based on the Sino-Burmese border, officials from
Lincang want the regime to pay for damage done to Chinese-owned businesses
in Laogai, the Kokang capital.

The Burmese authorities responded by asking their Chinese counterparts to
provide a detailed list of damaged property. They added that they would
only compensate businesses operating legally in Burma.

In a statement issued on Sept. 26, China’s Foreign Ministry urged the
Burmese junta to ensure the security of Chinese citizens living near the
conflict area and to avoid any further clashes.

Burma’s ambassador to China, Thein Lwin, told China News Service on Sept.
29 that the Kokang region was peaceful again, and that he had “sympathy”
for residents’ losses caused by the clashes.

In March 1989, the Kokang became one of the first ethnic armed groups to
sign a cease-fire agreement with the Burmese regime.
____________________________________

October 1, Irrawaddy
Kachin, junta deadlock in guard force talks – Lawi Weng

Talks between the Burmese junta and the Kachin Impendence Organization
(KIO), an ethnic cease-fire group, are in a standoff, according to Kachin
sources.

The Burmese junta’s northern regional commander, Maj-Gen Soe Win, and a
KIO delegation held a one-day meeting in Myintkyina, the capital of Kachin
State, on Wednesday.

Lapai Naw Din, the editor of the Thailand-based Kachin News Group, said
the junta pressed the KIO delegation to agree to transform its army into a
border guard force, and both side failed to arrive at a compromise.

“They [The Kachin] are aware that they can’t persuade the junta to agree
to their proposals. But, they still want to talk about their wishes,” said
Lapai Naw Din.

He said that a member of delegation told him the junta officials stuck to
their demand to become part of a border guard force under command of the
military government.

The KIO has proposed that it form a Kachin Regional Border Guard Force
instead of becoming a government border guard force under command of junta
officers.

Sources said the KIO delegation included different KIO department
representatives at the meeting.

Awng Wa, a Kachin youth leader, said the KIO leaders realize their
proposal has little chance of being accepted, but they want to negotiate
as long as possible.

KIO leaders have said that if the junta tries to force them to comply,
they will fight.

Kachin Independence Army (KIA) officers have told their troops to repel
any junta troops that enter its area.

The KIA vice chief of staff, Col Sumlut Gun Maw, has said that political
differences between the Kachin and the government require the Kachin to
maintain an independent army, according to Naw Din.

Lahkyen La Ja, the KIO general-secretary, told The Irrawaddy in June that
the army would only become a border guard force if there is a political
change that brings true democracy to Burma.

Another ethnic armed ceasefire group in northern Shan State, the United Wa
State Army, also continues to be pressured by the junta.

Mai Aik Phone, a Wa observer, said the UWSA held meetings on Sept. 15-16
at its headquarter in Phangsang and agreed to repeat its offer to become a
border guard force if the junta allows the Wa to establish an autonomous
state.

Meanwhile, the Wa, who have a 20,000-man army, are preparing for armed
conflict with junta troops. Sources say Wa officials have offered weapons
to civilians to fight along side of professional soldiers.

____________________________________

October 1, Narinjara News
Life in prison for smuggling fertilizer to Burma

Dhaka – A Bangladesh court on Tuesday sentenced three Bangladeshis to life
in prison for smuggling fertilizer into Burma, said a report.

A tribunal of Barisal District in Bangladesh handed down the verdict after
the three confessed to smuggling the urea fertilizer into Burma.

The convictees were identified as Mohammad Nur and Mohmmad Abdul Gafur of
Cox's Bazar and Kalachan Das Boalia Village in Barisal District.

According to a police report, Bangladesh police seized 2100 bags of
fertilizer from a smuggling boat on the Bishkali River on July 16, 2005,
when they were attempting to smuggle the fertilizer into Burma.

Police arrested the three smugglers and filed charges against them.

Bangladesh traders have smuggled fertilizer to Burma from Bangladesh in
recent years because the fertilizer prices in Burma is twice that in
Bangladesh.

However, the fertilizer smuggling was stopped last year after Bangladesh
authorities cracked down dramatically on it.

A fertilizer trader from Sittwe said, "Smuggling Bangladesh fertilizer to
Burma is totally stopped from last year and now Arakanese farmers have
used fertilizer from China for their farms."

____________________________________
REGIONAL

October 1, Shan Herald Agency for News
Bangkok to hold international Shan talk

Thailand’s prestigious Chulalongkorn University will be holding its first
ever 3-day International Conference on Shan Studies (ICSS), 15-17 October,
announced its director of the Institute of Asian Studies yesterday.

“Most of us think of Shans in connection with war and refugees,” said Dr
Sunait Chutintaranond.

“Little do we know that they are not a minority, that they have a
distinguished identity and a homeland which are their own.”

The next speaker Sao Kham Harn Fah, a scion of the Shan States’ once noble
house of Hsenwi, speaking for the Chiangmai-based Shan Literary and
Culture Society, told the audience that the objective of supporting the
Shan conference was two-fold:
•    To promote Shan identity
•    To promote kinship among the 100 million Tai speaking peoples in Asia
that include Shans, Thais and Laotians

“I don’t know to what extent our objective will be achieved,” he added.
“But I’m sure the Shan community here is going to do its best.”

The two-hour press conference was attended by the local media, academics
and students.

The Shan conference, to be held during the closure of the semester, is
expected to draw thousands of spectators.

The issues and themes to be covered include Shan in Thailand, belief and
religions, politics and governance in Shan State, art and archeology,
literature and music, architecture and palaces and indigenous wisdom and
knowledge, conference, during which performances and exhibition on Shan
art and culture will also be included, according to the flyer distributed
at the press.

For more information, please visit www.ias.chula.ac.th or www.chula.ac.th
or call 662-218-7463-4.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

October 1, Voice of America
US diplomat outlines Obama approach on Burma – Dan Robinson

Washington, DC – At a Senate subcommittee hearing on Wednesday, U.S.
Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs, Kurt
Campbell, outlined the Obama administration's new approach of pragmatic
engagement with Burma's military government. Campbell held preliminary
talks this week with Burmese officials in New York and was questioned
about what the new policy aims to achieve and the impact it might have on
bringing about democratic reform in Burma.

Burma's powerful military has pushed ahead since 1990 with a process that
would lock in a new military-dominated constitution.

And the country's opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, remains under house
arrest.

Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell told the Senate subcommittee
the Obama administration hopes that engagement will bring results, unlike
sanctions. "The sanctions effort, while providing an inconvenience in many
respects to the regime, and there are areas that they can be very
effective, in the overall context has been unsuccessful in accomplishing
the goals that really all of us have vis a vis Burma," he states.

Democratic Senator James Webb visited Burma in August and met with senior
Burmese military leader Than Shwe.

That visit paved the way for Webb's talks in New York with Prime Minister
Thein Sein, in late September.

Webb supports the Obama administration approach. "I believe that the
political motivations behind our isolation of Burma were honorable, based
on a desire to see democratic governance and a respect for human rights
inside that country," he says, "At the same time, the situation we face
with Burma is an example of what can happen when we seek to isolate a
country from the rest of world, but the rest of the world does not
follow."

Webb says the U.S. and international community should watch for signs of
progress as the U.S. initiative moves ahead.

Next year, Burma's military leaders plan national elections, the first
since 1990.

Professor David Williams, of Indiana University, doubts a democratic
result will come from the elections. He predicts an escalation of conflict
between Burma's military and ethnic armed groups.  "We know for a fact
that the Burmese military is gearing up for offensives around the country,
right now putting in supplies and resources, and that the resistance
groups are gearing up for resistance. The mountains will run with blood as
the elections approach," he said.

Assistant Secretary Campbell said the U.S. will continue to press for
democratic reform in Burma and the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and other
political prisoners.

He said there will be no change in U.S. sanctions without signs of
progress on key issues. "Lifting or easing sanctions at the outset of a
dialogue without meaningful progress on our concerns would be a mistake
and would sent the wrong message," Campbell said.

Aung San Suu Kyi supports a US dialogue with Burma's military rulers,
without preconditions, according to a spokesman for the National League
for Democracy (Nyan Win) who spoke this week.

____________________________________

October 1, Cybercast News Service (USA)
U.S. Senator pushing to lift sanctions against Burma did not invite junta
opponents to the hearing – Patrick Goodenough

The U.S. Senate’s leading proponent of lifting sanctions against Burma’s
military junta chaired hearings on U.S. policy towards the Southeast Asian
country on Wednesday, but the Democrat was criticized for not inviting any
members of the Burmese opposition to testify.

A number of activists, including saffron-robed Buddhist monks, attended
the hearing of the Senate East Asia subcommittee, saying they were there
to protest the fact that Sen. Jim Webb had not invited any monks or
members of the opposition party to testify.

The Virginia Democrat, who made a rare visit to Burma last August, came
under fire from advocacy groups when he said the Obama administration
should drop sanctions against the regime immediately and suggested that
detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for
Democracy (NLD) consider taking part in elections scheduled for next year.

The administration, which since February has been reviewing U.S. policy
towards Burma, announced in a shift last week that it would seek
engagement – but not lift sanctions.

The announcement was followed by a two-hour “introductory meeting” in New
York Tuesday between U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and a
Burmese minister. A State Department spokesman said he believed it to be
the first encounter of its type at that level in decades.

Aung Din, a former political prisoner in Burma and executive director of
the U.S. Campaign for Burma (USCB), said the organization backed the
administration approach of a combination of sanctions and engagement.

But if the regime did not cooperate with the opposition and stop abusing
civilians, then the U.S. should step up the pressure, including seeking a
Security Council arms embargo, he said.

“We also hope that U.S. engagement with the regime should not be an
open-ended process, but with a reasonable timeframe and clear benchmarks.”

’Lift sanctions, end isolation’

Speaking at Wednesday’s Capitol Hill hearing, Campbell said it was in the
interests of the U.S. to engage with the junta but it would be a “mistake”
to remove the sanctions in the absence of “meaningful progress.”

“We believe any easing of sanctions now would send the wrong signal to
those who have been striving for so many years for democracy and progress
in Burma, to our partners in the region and elsewhere, and to the Burmese
leadership itself,” he said.

“Moreover, we will reserve the option of tightening sanctions on the
regime and its supporters to respond to events in Burma.”

Webb told the hearing that isolating Burma had hurt America’ ability to
“push for positive change.”

He also focused on Burma’s location, flanked by China and India and seen
as increasingly under China’s influence, and said its isolation had
“resulted in a lack of attention to the region’s strategic dynamics.”

The USCB expressed concern that Webb had not invited any monks or
representatives of the NLD to participate in his hearing. The NLD won
elections in 1990 but the military overruled the outcome and held onto
power; Buddhist monks led demonstrations against military rule in 2007,
triggering a violent clampdown.

Webb said at the end of the hearing that the record would remain open for
24 hours “in case other organizations wish to submit testimony.”

Of the three panelists who did take part, one was U.S.-born historian and
former U.N. official Thant Myint-U, who said he favored lifting all
sanctions and ending “isolation of the country’s leadership from the rest
of the world.”

Panelist David Steinberg, director of Asian Studies at Georgetown
University, argued that sanctions had “accomplished none of the U.S.
objectives of reform and change,” but acknowledged that “political
attitudes in the U.S. preclude immediate or early lessening of the
sanctions regimen without 
 reciprocal actions” by Burma.

He said step-by-step negotiations were a reasonable way to proceed, and
suggested ways in which the relationship could be improved, such as
coordinated efforts in areas of mutual interest like the environment and
disaster preparedness.

Steinberg also noted that the junta regards as an insult the U.S.
administration’s use of the term “Burma” rather than “Myanmar,” the name
the military gave the state in 1989. (The choice of which name one uses,
he said, “has become a surrogate indicator of political inclination.”)

He pointed out that the U.S. has elsewhere followed name changes made by
governments, even those of which it disapproved, and implied that a shift
to the term “Myanmar” would improve relations.

‘Cynical attempt to buy off pressure’

The third panelist, Indiana University law professor David Williams,
focused on next year’s elections and Burma’s controversial new
constitution.

The NLD has said it will not take part in the election unless Suu Kyi and
more than 2,000 other political prisoners are freed. It also wants the
junta to agree to international supervision of the election and to amend
the constitution to reduce the influence of the military.

Webb recently suggested that the NLD consider participating in the
election and said the U.S. could offer to help carry out the poll.

Williams was pessimistic about the election and scathing of the
constitution, which he called “one of the worst” he had ever seen.

“Even if the 2010 elections are free and fair, which they won’t be, they
won’t bring about civilian rule because the constitution does not provide
for it – a partially civilian government, yes, but civilian rule, no.”

Much attention has been paid to the fact that the constitution sets aside
25 percent of seats in parliament for the military.

But Williams said the problems went well beyond that, and explained in
some detail that the constitution allows the military to do as it pleases.

“The whole constitution is based on a ‘wait and see’ strategy: if the
civilian government does what the [military] wants, then it will be
allowed to rule; if not, then not,” he said.

“This constitution is not a good faith gesture toward democracy; it’s a
cynical attempt to buy off international pressure.”

Williams also argued against making “premature concessions” to the junta.

“We win only if we can shift the game, only if through multilateral
diplomacy we can get the regime to stop killing its people and to allow
civilian rule,” he told the hearing. “Making premature concessions won’t
shift the game; it will only give the game away.”

On Thursday, the Irish rock band U2 is performing in Charlottesville Va.
The USCB said activists planned to collect signatures during the show for
petitions urging the Virginia senator to stop calling for an end to
sanctions.

U2 has long supported Burma’s democracy campaign and one of its albums was
banned by the regime for a song, “Walk On,” written for and about Suu Kyi.
____________________________________

October 1, Democratic Voice of Burma
US policy to Burma ‘must focus on people’ – Francis Wade

United States policy to Burma must address the deteriorating living
conditions in the country, and not continue to focus just on the
government, aid groups said yesterday.

An open letter signed by 20 aid agencies, including Save the Children,
Refugees International and International HIV/AIDS Alliance, welcomed
greater US engagement with Burma.

It stressed however that while aid “is one of the few areas where concrete
progress is being made” in Burma, the US must “continue to increase
humanitarian assistance”.

“While the Burmese military regime bears most responsibility for the
situation in Burma, international humanitarian aid for the Burmese people
has not kept pace with their needs.”

It added that engagement only with the ruling junta would not begin to
tackle Burma’s myriad problems.

“US policy towards Burma has traditionally focused on the government and
not the millions of people in Burma, whose living conditions have steadily
deteriorated,” it said.

The comments were echoed by Southeast Asia researcher at Amnesty
International (AI), Benjamin Zawacki, who said that the overwhelming
majority of the Burmese population “have been held hostage to political
concerns” when it comes to humanitarian aid.

“This is simply indefensible, so we very much support humanitarian
engagement to Burma,” he said.

He added that the time was ripe for a change in US policy to Burma, but
whether through sanctions or engagement with the ruling junta, “there must
be no let up in the quantity of pressure”.

“Sanctions certainly have been a failure. The purpose of those sanctions
was to ultimately affect government policy, vis-à-vis human rights,
political participation, and so on, and in that they have been a
categorical failure,” he said.

Senior US State Department officials met with Burma’s delegation to the
United Nations General Assembly yesterday in New York.

The US announced last week that it will look to directly engage with the
ruling junta, whilst maintaining sanctions, following years of a failed
isolationist policy.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

October 1, Boston Globe (USA)
Human rights: Don’t go wobbly on Burma’s junta – Editorial

When Senator John F. Kerry chairs a Foreign Relations Committee hearing
today on violence against women, he will have a chance to shine a bright
light on human rights abuses that are all too common in all too many
places. One place in particular where women are subjected to widespread
rape and violence by soldiers is Burma under its ruthless military junta.
Kerry should seize this opportunity to caution the Obama administration
against the naive assumption that dialogue with the Burmese generals may
dissuade them from committing sickening acts of cruelty.

Kerry would do well to draw on a recent report from the International
Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School. Citing United Nations
documentation of the systemic use of rape as a weapon of war against
ethnic minority women in Burma, the report calls for a UN Commission of
Inquiry for crimes against humanity committed by the junta’s forces.

The administration, after a long policy review, said this week it will
maintain existing sanctions on the junta at the same time as it pursues
engagement. That’s fine - unless dialogue leads to the lifting of
sanctions while Burma’s soldiers and officers go on raping the minority
women of Burma.

____________________________________

October 1, Transnational Institute
Burma’s cease-fire groups: Peace & security briefing #1 – Tom Kramer

In August 2009, the Burma1 army occupied the Kokang region after several
days of fighting,  nding two decades of cease-fire with the Myanmar
National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA). Led by Kokang leader Pheung
Kya-shin, the MNDAA was the first of over nearly 20 armed opposition
groups to conclude a cease-fire agreement with the military government
that assumed power in 1988. The recent fighting forced 37,000 people to
flee across the border to China. Will the Kokang breakdown be where
Burma’s cease-fire unity ended?

The resumption of fighting in northern Burma raises speculation about the
other cease-fires. Tensions are rising and the cease-fire groups have put
their armed forces on high alert. They are preparing for battle but say
they will continue to seek political change through dialogue, and will not
fire the first shot.

The tensions come amidst pressure by Burma’s military regime, known as the
State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), to transform the cease-fire
groups into Border Guard Forces (BGFs) and efforts to organize a general
election in 2010, the country’s first since 1990. Widespread opposition to
the BGF proposal increases uncertainty about the future of the cease-fires
and peaceful transformation to a lasting political settlement.

For more on this report, visit: http://www.tni.org/reports/drugs/psb1.pdf