BurmaNet News, October 7, 2009

[Editor]

October 7, 2009 Issue #3814


INSIDE BURMA
AP: Myanmar official meets Aung San Suu Kyi
Irrawaddy: Armed faction splits from Mon Party
Mizzima: US embassy official meets detained citizen, lawyers appointed
DVB: Youth activist’s sentence extended by 10 years
DVB: Suu Kyi to launch central court appeal
Xinhua: Myanmar steps up security measures in industrial zones after bomb
explosions

ON THE BORDER
The Nation (Thailand): Border security chief: We won't force refugees back
to Burma
DPA: Report: Tension mounts on Bangladesh-Myanmar border

BUSINESS / TRADE
All Headline News (USA): Bangladesh urges Myanmar to establish direct
banking link for trade expansion

INTERNATIONAL
Mizzima: Campaigners demand global arms embargo against Burma
Mizzima: HRW honours Burmese rights activist

OPINION / OTHER
Irrawaddy: Chicken in the basket – Aung Zaw





____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

October 7, Associated Press
Myanmar official meets Aung San Suu Kyi

Yangon, Myanmar — Detained Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi
held talks Wednesday with a junta official, the second such meeting within
a week following her call for a new era of cooperation, official sources
said.

The unannounced meeting between Suu Kyi and Relations Minister Aung Kyi at
a government guest house near her lakeside home in Yangon lasted about
half an hour, according to officials who spoke on condition of anonymity
because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

Details of the talks were not immediately known.

The meetings follow a letter Suu Kyi sent late last month to junta chief
Senior Gen. Than Shwe. In it, she said she is willing to cooperate with
the junta in having international sanctions lifted and proposed that she
meet with Western diplomats to discuss the measures, according to her
National League for Democracy party.

The letter appeared to be a confidence-building gesture to the junta. The
64-year-old Nobel Prize winner had previously welcomed sanctions as a way
to pressure the junta to achieve political reconciliation with the
pro-democracy movement.

"I believe this could be related to Daw Suu's letter and a continuation of
Saturday's meeting," said Nyan Win, spokesman of Suu Kyi's party,
regarding Wednesday's talks. Daw is a term of respect in Myanmar.

"This is a positive sign that the government is willing to talk. I hope
there will be more discussions in the future," he said.

The movement has insisted on concessions from the government if they are
to work together, particularly the freeing of political prisoners and the
reopening of party offices around the country.

Suu Kyi's meeting with Aung Kyi was their seventh since his post was
created in October 2007. The job of relations minister was created at the
urging of U.N. special envoy Ibrahim Gambari after the U.N. Security
Council urged the junta to open talks with the pro-democracy movement.

Suu Kyi has been detained for 14 of the last 20 years.

On Friday, a court rejected Suu Kyi's appeal against the extension of her
widely condemned house arrest. The decision was expected and was another
reminder that the military junta treads warily when considering
concessions to the opposition or improving relations with the West.

The United States announced last week that it is modifying its tough
policy of isolating the military regime and will instead try to engage the
junta through high-level talks.

Washington said it will still maintain its political and economic
sanctions against the regime. It and other Western nations apply sanctions
because of Myanmar's poor human rights record and its failure to turn over
power to Suu Kyi's party after it won the last elections in 1990.

Friday's court ruling against Suu Kyi upheld her August conviction for
breaking the terms of her house arrest by briefly sheltering an uninvited
American at her home earlier this year. She was sentenced to an additional
18 months of house arrest, which means she cannot participate in elections
scheduled for next year, the first in Myanmar in two decades.

Suu Kyi's legal team said Friday they plan to appeal to the Supreme Court
within 60 days.

____________________________________

October 7, Irrawaddy
Armed faction splits from Mon Party

About 50 members of the Mon National Liberation Army (MNLA), the military
wing of New Mon State Party (NMSP), have broken away from the Mon party in
recent months, according to sources close to the party.

The soldiers are believed to be supported by some party leaders who oppose
the junta’s 2010 election.

Mon party leaders are reportedly split on whether or not to participate in
the election.

About five members of the NMSP central committee have resigned in recent
months following a disagreement among party leaders over the election
issue, sources said.

The NMSP signed a cease-fire with the Burmese military in 1995.  Since
then the numbers of soldiers have been shrinking. The party had an army of
about 700 soldiers before.

The Mon party is among 17 cease-fire groups that are being pressured by
the regime to transform their troops into a border guard force led by
government officers.

At a meeting to discuss the border guard force issue in Moulmein on Aug.
28, Maj-Gen Thet Naing Win, the regional commander of the junta’s
Southeast Command, told Mon leaders to order their members not to take
part in political campaigns in Thaton District.

According to the junta’s 2008 Constitution, all ethnic cease-fire groups
must be controlled by the Burmese government.

____________________________________

October 7, Mizzima News
US embassy official meets detained citizen, lawyers appointed – Mungpi

New Delhi – The consul officer of the United States embassy met detained
citizen Kyaw Zaw Lwin in Rangoon’s Insein prison on Sunday, and appointed
two lawyers to take up his case.

The embassy’s Assistant Public Relation Officer, Drake Weisert on
Wednesday told Mizzima, that “An embassy consular officer met Kyaw Zaw
Lwin a second time on Sunday, October 4 in Insein Prison.”

Drake also said advocates Kyi Win and Nyan Win, have been appointed as
attorneys to defend Kyaw Zaw Lwin (alias) Nyi Nyi Aung, arrested and
detained on September 3 on his arrival at the Rangoon International
Airport from Thailand.

Nyan Win and Kyi Win, advocates of the Supreme Court, also teamed up to
defend the Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who was charged for
violating her terms of detention and sentenced on August to 18 months of a
suspended sentence.

US embassy officials, however, did not say whether Nyi Nyi Aung has been
officially charged and did not talk about his health condition.

Earlier on Monday, Nyan Win, who is also handling the case of detained
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi said that he had taken up the case for
the release of Nyi Nyi Aung from Insein prison.

Nyi Nyi Aung, who was a student activist involved in the 1988 student-led
pro-democracy uprising, is a naturalised US citizen and is reportedly a
resident of Maryland.

Sources said he had a valid US passport and a social visit Visa to Burma,
when he flew into Rangoon on a TG flight on September 3.

But the government’s mouthpiece, the New Light of Myanmar newspaper
accused him of collaborating with exiled opposition groups and linking up
with underground activists inside Burma.

The newspaper also accused him of providing financial assistance to
activists inside Burma to plant explosives and to instigate unrest.

Nyi Nyi Aung’s family members including his sister and mother are serving
prison terms for their involvement in the ‘Saffron Revolution’, where
monks led thousands of protesters on the streets of Rangoon in September
2007.

His sister, Thet Thet Aung (35), was sentenced to 65 years in prison,
while his mother is serving a five-year prison term.

____________________________________

October 7, Democratic Voice of Burma
Youth activist’s sentence extended by 10 years – Khin Hnin Htet

Oct 7, 2009 (DVB)–A Burmese youth activist currently serving eight years
in Rangoon’s notorious Insein prison yesterday had his sentence extended
by 10 years, sources close to his family said.

Nyein Chan, a member of the Generation Wave (GW) activist group, was
yesterday found guilty of breaching the Electronics Act, a charge that has
been used to imprison numerous activists, journalists and politicians in
Burma.

“He was previously sentenced to eight years in prison by San Chaung
district court under the Unlawful Association Act and still has two more
trials to face at the same court,” said the source, speaking under
condition of anonymity.

Nyein Chan’s initial sentence of eight years was handed down in February
this year after he was caught distributing leaflets to mark the one-year
anniversary of the founding of GW.

The source said that the multiple trials he is facing that force him to
attend court up to three times a week are “damaging his physical and
mental health”. He said the total prison sentence could be more than 20
years.

Burma currently holds around 2,120 political prisoners, including 244
monks and 270 students, according to the Thailand-based Assistance
Association for Political Prisoners – Burma (AAPP).

The ruling junta last month announced an amnesty of more than 7,000
political prisoners, nearly 130 of which were political prisoners.

Critics of the junta cautiously welcomed the amnesty, but claimed it was
done for cosmetic reasons. AAPP, who comprise of former Burmese political
prisoners, said the move was a “cynical ploy” to deflect international
criticism of the junta.

____________________________________

October 7, Democratic Voice of Burma
Suu Kyi to launch central court appeal – Khin Hnin Htet

Lawyers for Aung San Suu Kyi will take an appeal over her house arrest to
Burma’s central court after being rejected by a Rangoon prison court last
week.

A letter was sent yesterday to the Special Information Branch requesting a
meeting between lawyers and Suu Kyi to discuss the appeal, said lawyer
Nyan Win.

“We will appeal for a revision at the central court. If we fail on that,
we will make a special appeal as the last resort,” he said.

Nyan Win last week confirmed that the court at Rangoon’s Insein prison,
where Suu Kyi was tried, rejected an 11-point appeal over her house arrest
and upheld the guilty verdict awarded to her in August.

He also said yesterday that a request from Suu Kyi for a renovation at her
house would likely to be approved.

“Our architect is going through the necessary paperwork. So far we have
been granted approval from [Rangoon] ward authorities,” he said.

Meanwhile the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) party
responded positively to a meeting last week between Suu Kyi and the
government’s information minister, Aung Kyi.

The meeting came in the wake of a letter sent by Suu Kyi to junta leader
Than Shwe suggesting dialogue between the two over the lifting of
international sanctions on Burma.

“Prime Minister Thein Sein has urged [the international community] to
revoke sanctions on Burma,” said NLD information wing member, Khin Maung
Swe, adding similar remarks from Suu Kyi were “a good sign for the future
of the country and the people”.

On whether cooperation between the junta and Suu Kyi would take place,
Khin Maung Swe said it depended in which countries imposed sanctions on
Burma, and why they did it.

“We have to accept that the political situation in Burma has changed its
shape; we can even say this change is positive,” he said. “However, this
is only just a starting point so we can’t say anything for sure.”

____________________________________

October 7, Xinhua
Myanmar steps up security measures in industrial zones after bomb explosions

Yangon – The Myanmar authorities have stepped up security measures in
industrial zones in suburban Yangon following seven series of bomb
explosions within two days in three industrial zones in the former capital
last month, sources with the industrial zones administration said on
Wednesday.

The security measures cover the addition of more street lighting
factory-wise in the zones, increase of patrolling by security staff and
asking help from the police force for inaccessible areas.

A series of seven small bombs blast in different outskirts in Yangon on
Sept. 16-17 without causing casualties but slight damage.

The bombs exploded at different locations in the industrial zones of
Hlaingtharya, Shwepaukan and Mingalardon townships at some intervals
within four hours' duration from mid-night to next morning.

Another bomb, suspected to be a time-bomb, was seized at the Mingalardon
industrial zone in Yangon but was defused by the authorities, the report
said.

Meanwhile, the Myanmar authorities have arrested some members of various
anti-government organizations for allegedly plotting riots and sabotage in
the country during this year.

These anti-government group members, charged with instigating unrest and
terrorist attacks during the year in collaboration with the All Burma
Students Democratic Front (ABSDF), included two members of the All Arakan
Students and Youth Congress (AASYC) and some individuals.

Among them was Nyi Nyi Aung with naturalized U.S. citizenship, who entered
Myanmar for eight times and was charged with creating anti-government mass
movement, especially a planned uprising in September involving monks.

The authorities linked Nyi Nyi Aung with the above series of seven bomb
blasts in the three industrial zones.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

October 7, The Nation (Thailand)
Border security chief: We won't force refugees back to Burma – Kornchanok
Raksaseri and Don Pathan

Thailand will not forcibly repatriate Burmese refugees residing along the
border provinces, even after the upcoming general election in Burma, the
director of the Bureau of Border

Security Affairs and Defence at the National Security Council (NSC) said
yesterday.

Attending a conference on Thailand-Burma relations at Chulalongkorn
University, Bhornchart Bunnag said the government would continue to abide
by the current policy of not forcing refugees back to unsafe areas.

"Any repatriation of displaced people would be voluntary," Bhornchart said.

Moreover, Bhornchart said, the refugees' situation could become worse if
the Burmese army launched more attacks against cease-fire groups, such as
the Shan or the Wa rebels.

The August attack along the Sino-Burma against Kokang Chinese had sent
several thousand ethnic Chinese and hilltribes' people across into China.

Thai security officials along the border said an attack on the
20,000-strong United Wa State Army (UWSA), an outfit with strongholds on
the Thai and the Chinese borders, could force more than 200,000 refugees
into Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai provinces.

Much of yesterday's debate centered on the new US strategy of engaging
Burma, one of the world's most reclusive regimes.

But while the idea of talking to the Burmese junta has won support across
the spectrum, Democrat Party MP Kraisak Choonhavan passionately urged the
international community not to overlook the plight of displaced people,
namely the Karens and the Shans, inside Burma and residing in camps along
the Thai border.

Asst Prof Puangthong Pawakapan, a political scientist at Chulalongkorn
University, dismissed suggestions that conflict and human rights
violations inside Burma were purely domestic problems.

 "Be it suppression of their own people, clashes with the rebel groups,
the lack of good governance or the influx of illegal workers and
refugees, Thailand will always be at the receiving end of Burma's
internal problems," Puangthong said.

"Thailand doesn't have a coherent policy on Burma. On the one hand, we
want their cheap labour and their natural resources, such as logging along
the border. But we don't seems to realise that the Burmese junta are
displacing their own people so we can have these concessions," she added.

Kraisak pointed to a report, License to Rape, saying the atrocities
committed against minority women by Burmese troops are taking place in
resource-rich areas which Thai and foreign businesses were looking to
exploit for financial gain.
____________________________________

October 7, Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Report: Tension mounts on Bangladesh-Myanmar border

Dhaka – Tension has mounted along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border after
Myanmar military authorities resumed the construction of border fences,
newspaper reports said Wednesday.

Bangladesh has reinforced its paramilitary troops along the south-eastern
border in the hilly Bandarban district, canceling troopers' leaves, the
English-language New Age newspaper reported quoting a top official of the
Bangladesh Rifles border force.

"Troop deployment at the border has been reinforced and all-but-essential
leaves of BDR personnel have been cancelled," chief of the paramilitary
force Major General Mohammad Mainul Islam was quoted by the paper as
saying.

He said the BDR troops had been deployed along sensitive areas on the
border and other preparations had been made.

The recent troubles between the two neighbouring countries started in
November 2008 when a Myanmar naval ship allegedly intruded into
Bangladesh's territorial waters for hydrocarbon exploration in the Bay of
Bengal.

Bangladesh, which also sent warships into the bay to counter the alleged
intrusion at that time, had managed to defuse tension after involving
China in negotiations.

Bangladesh also resumed negotiation with Myanmar to define their maritime
borders in 2008, after about three decades of uncertainty, but a series of
discussions are yet to make any headway in resolvingthe issue.

The tension surged again when Myanmar began erecting barbed-wire fencing
along the border with Bangladesh early this year. It was stopped after
Dhaka sent a note of protest to Yangon.

But the Yangon authorities resumed the fencing project again recently and
also deployed troop reinforcements on their side of the border, according
to Bangladesh intelligence reports.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

October 7, All Headline News (USA)
Bangladesh urges Myanmar to establish direct banking link for trade
expansion – Siddique Islam

Dhaka, Bangladesh – Bangladesh has requested Myanmar to directly open
letters of credit (LCs) with its commercial banks to boost bilateral trade
activities between the two countries.

"We've requested the visiting Myanmar delegation to encourage their
exporters to take initiatives for opening LCs with commercial banks of
Bangladesh directly rather than by any third country," Senior Executive
Director of Bangladesh Bank (BB) Khandakar Muzharul Haque told AHN Media
in Dhaka on Tuesday.

The visiting Myanmar expert-level delegation assured Bangladesh they will
solve the issue through discussion with their trade bodies, banks and
other related stakeholders.

The assurance was made at a wrap-up meeting with the officials of the
central bank of Bangladesh, held at the conference room of the BB in Dhaka
on Tuesday, the central bank officials said.

Currently, the two neighboring countries settle trade payments through a
third country like Singapore or Thailand.

During the two-day long talks, the Myanmar delegation asked the local
commercial banks to keep sufficient funds in the foreign currency account,
officially known as NOSTRO accounts, to make payments timely.

Local bankers and the BB officials informed the Myanmar delegation that
there is no scope of shortage of fund which may cause the delay of payment
under the existing Asian Clearing Union (ACU) mechanism.

The ACU is an arrangement comprising Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran,
Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka to settle payments for
intra-regional transactions among the participating central banks on a
multilateral basis.

"We place our funds with the central bank of Bangladesh and then the BB
sends advice to the related member central banks to credit the funds with
the commercial banks," Deputy Managing Director of National Credit and
Commerce Bank Limited SM Shamsul Alam told AHN in Dhaka while explaining
the ACU mechanism. Mr. Alam attended the meeting between the visiting
four-member Myanmar delegation four representatives of commercial banks of
Bangladesh on Monday.

The meeting also discussed increasing bilateral trade activities between
the two countries using ACU mechanism, the BB officials and bankers
confirmed.

The volume of bilateral trade between the two countries has been rather
'insignificant' for years because of lack of proper initiatives. The
balance of trade, according to officials, has remained in favour of
Myanmar over the past 13 years.

However, a review of bilateral trade between the two countries shows that
the trade balance was in favor of Bangladesh from 1991-92 to 1995-96. But
in 1996-97, it tilted in favour of the Southeast Asian country.

Dhaka exported goods and commodities worth only $9.17 million to Yangon in
fiscal year 2008-09 while its imports during the period stood at $66.49
million.

Bangladesh mainly exports pharmaceutical products, leather, woven garments
and other manufacturing goods to Myanmar and imports wood articles,
vegetable products, processed food and fish.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

October 7, Mizzima News
Campaigners demand global arms embargo against Burma – Salai Pi Pi

New Delhi – A veteran Burmese politician on Wednesday appreciated
Switzerland’s commitment to support the United Nations arms embargo on
Burma’s military regime, even as campaigners seek to shore up a global
consensus to overcome opposition by Russia and China at the Security
Council.

Switzerland on Monday in a statement said it supports a global arms
embargo against Burma’s military rulers and called on all nations to stop
exporting armaments to the regime.

Win Tin, a central executive committee member of Burma’s opposition party
– the National League for Democracy – echoed Switzerland’s stand saying
“Global arms embargo is the best punishment for the ruling regime as it
does not impact the people but has a lot of effect on the junta.”

“By having an arms embargo, the people lose nothing but the regime will
lose bullets or weapons to suppress the people,” he added.

But he said, he feared that the campaign for a global arms embargo might
not be able to overcome the Burmese junta’s allies Russia and China at the
UN Security Council, as the two veto wielding countries had earlier
blocked a UNSC resolution on Burma in January 2007.

Switzerland, which had introduced an arms embargo on Burma in October
2000, on Monday became the 31st country to join campaigners call to
support a global arms embargo on Burma.

The embargo is in keeping with the European Union sanctions against Burma
and is being periodically updated, said the statement but called on other
countries to stop exporting arms to Burma as only a common action could be
effective.

“Thus, Switzerland would welcome and support a coordinated initiative by
the European Union and the US at the UN level to stop arms exports to
Myanmar [Burma]," the statement said.

Burma Campaign UK said it is working with other campaign groups in
building a global consensus on arms embargo on Burma.

Mark Farmaner, Director of the Burma Campaign UK said, despite the US and
EU arms embargo, several countries including China, Russia, India, and
Israel are continuing to export armaments to the Burmese regime, who use
the weapons to crackdown on dissidents.

But Farmaner said the campaign has gained much support though there is
still fear that Russia and China would oppose any move at the UNSC to
adopt an arms embargo.

“They are going to be the big problem. The only way we can persuade China
and Russia not to use veto is to isolate them as the only countries
against arms embargo,” Farmaner said.

But he also stressed that in pushing the Burmese regime to implement
change, every possible pressure including political, economic and
prosecution for crime against humanity, need to be used.
____________________________________

October 7, Mizzima News
HRW honours Burmese rights activist

New Delhi – The New York-based Human Rights Watch on Wednesday named a
Burmese human rights activist, Bo Kyi, among four winners of the 2009
Alison Des Forges Defender Award for Extraordinary Activism.

“I feel that this recognition and honour is deserved by many Burmese
political prisoners still languishing in prisons across the country,” Bo
Kyi, who co-founded the Thailand-based Assistant Association for Political
Prisoners – Burma (AAPPB) said.

Bo Kyi along with Daniel Bekel, lawyer and activist from Ethiopia, Elena
Milashina, reporter for Russia’s leading Independent newspaper “Novaya
Gazeta”, Mathilde Muhindo, women’s rights activist working to stop sexual
violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo were named winners of the
HRW’s award.

The award winners will be honoured at the 2009 Human Rights Watch Annual
Dinners to be held in Chicago, Geneva, Hamburg, Houston, London, Los
Angeles, Munich, New York, Paris, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Toronto,
and Zurich in November.

“These extraordinary individuals confront tremendous challenges every day,
yet they work selflessly to end human rights violations and bring abusers
to justice,” said Kenneth Roth, Executive Director of HRW in a statement
on Wednesday.

“We hope this award, named for Alison Des Forges, will inspire and protect
them as they struggle to uphold human rights in their countries,” Roth
said.

Bo Kyi and his organisation, AAPPB, have extensively monitored the
situation of political prisoners and advocated their release. The AAPP
also provides assistance to former political prisoners and families of
those that are still in detention. It also releases periodical updates of
the numbers and situations of political prisoners in Burma.

As a student, Bo Kyi had been actively involved in the 1988 student-led
pro-democracy uprising. He served seven years in prison, for his activism.

Bo Kyi said, “Whether I had received the award or not, I will still have
to work for the people whose rights are violated, but this award is a
moral support and an encouragement to the work.”

“It gives us strength to know that the world is not blind or deaf about
what is happening inside Burma,” he added.

Conditions in military-ruled Burma cannot be described wholly with the
term ‘human rights violation’, but it is more of a crime committed against
humanity, Bo Kyi said.

“Because torture in detention centres, interrogation centres and rape
against ethnic minority women in the frontiers, extra-judicial killings,
and arrest are all taking place in a day to day basis in Burma,” Bo Kyi
said.

According to the AAPPB, there are currently 2,119 political prisoners in
jails across the country.

The HRW, as an honour to the award winners, will take Bo Kyi and the other
three to Europe and USA on a campaign tour, where they will be able to
meet leaders and activists working to promote human rights.

Bo Kyi was also named as one of the five winners of the 2008 Human Rights
Defenders Award by Human rights Watch.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

October 7, Irrawaddy
Chicken in the basket – Aung Zaw

A colleague in Rangoon told me recently that Burma’s regime leaders are
aware of the need for a “free press” in Burma and have been cultivating
and talking to the local press. So I got excited and asked: “Will there be
a revival of a free press soon in Burma?”

My colleague chuckled and urged me to rein in my hopes. “It’s like the
chicken in the basket,” he said, citing the Burmese metaphor of chickens
held by market traders in rattan baskets. Noting my puzzlement, he gave a
lengthy explanation.

Recently, the press in Burma has been given some limited freedom to
publish names that were strictly banned in the past.

The names include Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, the late
rebellious poet laureate Tin Moe, who died in the US a few years ago, and
the famous satirist Maung Thaw Ka, who died from maltreatment in Insein
prison in 1991.

Some publications have recently carried articles and interviews on the
planned 2010 general election and have begun debating the issue in very
cautious language.

Among them, The Voice Weekly has lately been quite controversial in its
editorials and articles, while hailing the election, welcoming the arrival
of the 5,000 kyat banknote, the visit of US Senator Jim Webb in August and
full of optimism about the chances of improved US-Burmese ties.

The publication’s pro-junta stance has no doubt backfired. Predictably,
anti-junta groups inside Burma and exiled activist groups were enraged.

More interestingly, some rival publications in Rangoon, including the
best-selling weekly First Eleven Journal, have come out in opposition to
the editorial line of The Voice Weekly. The usual suspect, the regime, has
even played a role in creating conflict and jealousy among editors.

So the war in the chicken basket began, mused my colleague. Welcome to
Burma’s fight for a “free press.”

Burma currently has five leading publishing groups: Living Color Media,
Eleven Media Group, the Myanmar Consolidated Media Ltd, Yangon Media Group
and Modern Journal Group. Burma’s media moguls—Dr Nay Win Maung, Dr Than
Htut Aung, Dr Tin Htun Oo, Ko Ko (Yangon Institute of Technology) and U
William—have been running the groups’ publications for years.

All five groups have registered steady growth and the publishers don’t
hide their ambition to publish daily newspapers in the near future.
Unfortunately for them, however, the generals in Naypyidaw still call the
shots.

In military-ruled Burma it is common that editors and publishers, if they
are not outright apologists of the regime, compromise and toe the official
line so their publications can survive. They have established close ties
either to powerful generals or to cronies of the top leaders.

Interestingly, Maj Tint Swe, head of Burma’s notorious censorship board,
the Press Scrutiny and Registration Division, is not as powerful as many
may have thought.

Even Tint Swe’s boss, Information Minister Kyaw Hsan—once dubbed Burma’s
comical Ali because of his blunders (a reference to former Iraqi
Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf)—hasn’t been able to
exercise his influence over these local media empires. Although recently
sidelined, Kyaw Hsan retains his post for now because of the patronage of
Gen Thura Shwe Mann, the regime’s No 3.

Knowing the country needs a “free press” in the post-election period,
Snr-Gen Than Shwe, a former psychological warfare officer, and his close
associates seem to have direct management and control over publications in
Burma.

Informed sources close to the Press Scrutiny and Registration Division say
Than Shwe and other top leaders deliberately “relaxed” their control of
the local press recently so that some major publications could enter into
political debate and mention once banned names. Few dared to question the
election and publish critical analysis of the political process in Burma,
however, and all publications are required to carry the regime’s
propaganda articles.

My colleague predicted that in the near future even privately-run daily
newspapers will be permitted, although the generals want to make sure they
will remain loyal to the military and the new government.

“Gen Than Shwe is not stupid and he wants to have a colorful mouthpiece,
so he is now carefully observing all major publications in Rangoon to see
which the future regime could ally with,” he said.

This would mean that the regime has no intention to restore the spirit of
Burma’s once formidable press freedom. The regime has muzzled press
freedom and thrown journalists into Burma’s gulag, and it continues to do
so.

According to the Paris-based media watchdog Reporters without Borders,
Burma ranks 170 out of 172 when it comes to freedom of the press.

A source close to some senior army officers in Naypyidaw admitted that
controlling the media is a not an easy task.

When former intelligence chief and prime minister Gen Khin Nyunt was in
power, he allowed a colorful Myanmar Times to publish every week in an
attempt to whitewash Burma’s poor image and counter a critical foreign
press. Reporters without Borders once called The Myanmar Times
“sophisticated propaganda.”

Since the fall of Khin Nyunt in October 2004, publications have emerged to
compete with The Myanmar Times. Three new arrivals were First Eleven, The
Voice Weekly and Yangon Times.

This strategy was deliberate—adding more chickens to the basket without
freeing them.

I remain optimistic of returning to Burma with The Irrawaddy once a free
press reigns there. I told my colleague that I have faith in some editors
and publishers who are genuine in wanting to see change in Burma and who
will never giving up pushing the envelope.

My colleague was cautious and urged me not to get too excited. “Some
chickens are brave and they fight back,” he said. “But if you are louder
and critical of the election, you will get attention in Naypyidaw.”

He warned that the regime’s intention is to flush out in the press those
publications that are for and against the 2010 election.

So chickens continue to fight in the basket?  Some chickens, he said, are
merely opportunists and apologists and quickly become public enemies as
they appease the regime. Some chickens want to fight but they also have
limitations.

Then he provided a further intriguing insight. The regime’s intelligence
wing and special branch, he said, are collecting all the “dirt” on
powerful editors and publishers and even scholars. The information
includes personal anecdotes, shady business deals and clandestine
connections to exiled groups.

My colleague, who seemed to have some insightful information, chuckled and
told me that if these powerful names are seen to step out of the line the
regime will prepare cases against them. “So they are chickens in the
basket.”