From editor at burmanet.org Mon Nov 2 17:29:49 2009 From: editor at burmanet.org (Editor) Date: Mon, 2 Nov 2009 17:29:49 -0500 (EST) Subject: BurmaNet News, November 2, 2009 Message-ID: <49796.63.173.78.131.1257200989.squirrel@webmail2.pair.com> October 31- November 2, 2009 Issue #3831 INSIDE BURMA DVB: ?They forced me to kneel like a dog? Irrawaddy: KIO Calls for discussion of Panglong Agreement IPS: Karen fear military offensive near planned dam in Burma ON THE BORDER Christian Science Monitor: Elections push ruling generals to quell insurgencies DVB: Hundreds flee homes in eastern Burma BUSINESS / TRADE AFP: Hyundai to build offshore gas platform in Myanmar DRUGS Mizzima: Drug smuggling to Thailand mounts Narinjara: 9,000 yaba tablets seized in Maungdaw REGIONAL WSJ: Myanmar?s neighbors advance pipeline project The Star (Malaysia): Plight of the stateless The Daily Start (Bangladesh): Rohingya trouble in jobs abroad OPINION / OTHER WSJ: Endangering the next Kim Dae-jung - Michael J. Greene ____________________________________ INSIDE BURMA November 2, Democratic Voice of Burma ?They forced me to kneel like a dog? The Obama administration has a mountain to climb in order to secure the release of political prisoners in Burma, with a military government aggressively preparing for the country?s first elections in 20 years. In recent weeks the number of political prisoners in Burma has risen following a crackdown on opposition groups. DVB interviewed former political prisoner Myo Yan Naung Thein, who was released in September after two years in prison. He spoke about life behind bars and the ongoing struggle that opposition groups in Burma face. ?On the afternoon of 15 December 2007, while I was on the phone to my mum at a shop in Rangoon, two men grabbed me by the hands. They were very strong. They had tattoos and looked like criminals. I shouted out because I thought that they had kidnapped me by mistake. Then one of them grabbed me by the throat, put his hand over my mouth, and pushed me into a taxi. They hooded me, and I was forced to lie down in the taxi. One of them sat on top of me. ?I don?t know where they took me because I was hooded, but as soon as I got there, they started to kick and punch me. They forced me to kneel on all fours like a dog, and one of them sat on my back. Those men were really violent and rude to me. ?Later I found out that the people who took me were from Military Affairs Security. They asked me about Min Ko Naing [88 Generation Students? leader], and other activists. Finally I realized I was in the Interrogation Center. They tortured me very brutally. My hands were tied behind my back, they kicked and punched me. They locked me in a dark, wet room with no windows. I didn?t know whether it was day or night. ?I was sent to Insein annex prison [in Rangoon] and put in a cell. One of my legs was deteriorating day by day. I had already suffered from a neurological condition once in 1991, so I informed prison authorities that I couldn?t move because of nerve damage, but they didn?t care. ?A prison medic came and saw me but he was a normal doctor, not a neuro-specialist, so I requested to see a neuro-specialist but they ignored me. Then the nerve damage got so bad I couldn?t move my legs at all. My mother sent request letters to the prison director many times, and the exile media also reported my case. Finally I got a chance to see a neuro-pecialist, and he told me my hands were also affected. ?I was transferred to Sandoway prison [in Burma?s western Arakan state] after sentencing. I actually had an appointment with a doctor at Rangoon hospital at the time, but they sent me to Thandwe prison anyway. They transferred me there because it is really far away from home and very cold, and because they thought it would help my health! ?Four of us were transferred to Sandoway prison. We were all handcuffed. They put everyone in iron shackles except me; they carried me because I couldn?t walk. They didn?t allow me to urinate during the journey to the prison, which took the whole night. It was so hard on me. There are 10 political prisoners in Sandoway prison. Now two were released, and the others were not. If they are honest, they will have to release all political prisoners because they are talking about national reconciliation. Ko Win Maw, the guitarist from the band Shwe Thansin, is in bad health and suffers from asthma. At night, sometimes he can?t breathe properly and then he almost falls unconscious. There are no medics, no doctors, and no proper medical care. ?When we were released [on 19 September] we were released under section 401, which means we will have go back to prison and serve the remainder of our sentences if we are arrested again for political activities. I feel nothing [positive about the release] because I was close to completing my sentence. And now I can?t stand up or walk. I can only walk if I have a person on either side to help me. ?We [activists] sacrificed a lot, but I will have to carry on until we get democracy in Burma. As a student, I didn?t really know about politics. I only knew that the military government is wrong. So I rebelled and demonstrated against the military government. Their rule is totally wrong for Burma. ?After we were imprisoned, we learned more and more about the injustices carried out by the military government, and that strengthened my beliefs even more. So who will keep fighting if we don?t? We have to carry on.? ____________________________________ November 2, Irrawaddy KIO Calls for Discussion of Panglong Agreement ? Ryan Libre Laiza, Kachin State ? The Oct. 31 deadline for the ethnic crease-fire groups in Burma to disarm has passed quietly in the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) capital of Laiza. Observers are focused now on the ongoing KIO-junta negotiations. After the junta rejected all nine negotiation proposals submitted by the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), the KIO has changed its negotiation tactics. A Kachin soldier on duty at a guard post at Laiza. (Photo: Ryan Libre) The tenth proposal?appealing to the principles outlined in the Panglong Agreement?appears to have put the junta on the defensive by asking it to respect a power-sharing agreement signed by the government and ethnic groups in 1947. The Panglong Agreement, a one-page document, states the central government will not ?operate in respect to the Frontier Areas in any matter which would deprive any portion of those areas of the autonomy which it now enjoys in internal administration.? >From the first Constitution in 1947 until today, the promise of internal autonomy for the outlying ethnic areas has never been fully realized, say Kachin sources. KIO Vice Chairman Gauri Zau Seng, KIA Vice Chief of Staff Gen Gun Maw and others are expected to meet with the junta's Northern Command in Myitkyina during the first week of November to discuss the latest proposal. The meeting could be the first of many to discuss the meaning of the agreement and how it might apply to the current political negotiations. This is the first time the military has been willing to discuss the Panglong Agreement since seizing power in 1961, say observers. A Kachin cultural and political historian said, ?If you give us the full meaning of that agreement?the human rights and ethnic minority rights stated on that paper?we will surrender.? A KIO source said, ?Now we are back on the right track, but we are not sure how far it will go.? ____________________________________ October 31, IPS RIGHTS: Karen Fear Military Offensive Near Planned Dam in Burma - Marwaan Macan-Markar Bangkok - With the annual monsoon rains ending, there is a growing fear among the Karen ethnic minority living along military-ruled Burma?s eastern border of a dry season offensive. The most vulnerable are villagers residing in the vicinity of the controversial Hat Gyi dam. The Burmese military will use its proxy force, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), to target the area along the Salween River that is essential to the Hat Gyi dam, environmentalists and human rights activists told IPS. Besides driving out the unarmed Karen civilians, the offensive will also target the fifth brigade of the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), currently camped along the Salween River, which flows past the border that Burma shares with Thailand, they added. The KNLA is the armed wing of the Karen National Union (KNU), which has been waging Asia?s longest separatist struggle?since 1949?to carve out an independent state for the Karen minority in Burma, also known as Myanmar. The DKBA is a breakaway group, splitting from the KNU in 1995 and joining forces with Burma?s oppressive regime. "The attacks in the fifth brigade area to defeat the KNU and clear the area for the dam will result in thousands of Karen fleeing across the Thai border as refugee," said David Thakerbaw, vice president of the KNU. "It will lead to more human rights violations, adding more suffering to what the people have already endured." "People in that area are opposed to the Hay Gyi dam for this reason," he added during a telephone interview from an undisclosed location along the Thai-Burma border. "The dam area will become more militarised; the Burmese army will bring in more troops to keep the site under their control." Such a grim forecast stems from what happened in June, soon after the monsoon rains broke. The Tatmadaw, as Burma?s over 400,000-strong military is called, launched an offensive with the DKBA, vanquishing the important seventh brigade of the KNU. The surprise attack forced over 4,000 already displaced Karens to flee into Thailand. This onslaught and the link it had to the planned Hat Gyi dam, which the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) has agreed to partially finance, prompted the KNU to ask the Thai government of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to withdraw Bangkok?s support for the dam. "There has been no proper survey to assess the environmental and social damage that the dam might cause," wrote General Tamla Baw, president of the KNU, to Abhisit in an early August letter. "The building of the dam at this time would bring many thousands of the junta?s troops who would perpetrate widespread human rights violations, such as forced labour, torture, extra-judicial executions, rape of women, looting of property (and) extortion." "The plan of the (Burmese regime) is to control KNLA positions for providing security to the construction of the dam," revealed the letter, seen by IPS. "(This area) will become the centre for EGAT to transport construction materials to Yinbaing village, which is at the dam site." "I would like to appeal to you and your government not to repatriate the Karen refugees in Thailand and not to initiate construction of the Hat Gyi dam," added Gen Tamla Baw. The recent flow of Karen refugees from Burma added to the already 120,000 refugees who have been living in camps on the Thai side of the border for over two decades. Within Burma, the plight of the Karens is as dire. They are among the estimated 540,000 internally displaced people seeking refuge in forests and in the mountains after fleeing attacks by the Tatmadaw. "The highest rates of recent displacement were reported in northern Karen areas and southern Shan Sate," the Thailand Burma Border Consortium, a humanitarian organisation helping Burma?s ethnic minorities fleeing into Thailand, revealed this week. "Almost 60,000 Karen villagers are hiding in the mountains of Kyaukkgi, Thandaung and Papun Township, and a third of these civilians fled from artillery attacks from Burmese army patrols during the past year." The Karen, who make up an estimated seven million people of Burma?s 56 million population, are one of the largest ethnic minorities in this South-east Asian nation. The Shan and the Kachin are among the other groups in a country that has a patchwork of some 130 ethnic communities. Burma?s military has been waging wars with nearly 20 ethnic rebel groups since it gained independence from the British colonisers in 1948. The Karen and militants in the Shan area have refused to kowtow to the military regime?unlike the 17 other ethnic separatist movements that signed ceasefire agreements two decades ago?consequently denying the Burmese regime total control of its land area. Burma?s military regime has attracted interest from China and EGAT, Thailand?s state-run power utility, to invest in a cascade of dams along the 2,800 kilometre-long Salween, the longest untouched body of water flowing through South-east Asia. Its source is the mountains of Tibet, then coursing through China?s southern Yunan province, enters Burma, touches the Thai-Burma border, and then flows out into the Andaman Sea. In June 2006, Burma?s department of electricity, EGAT and China?s Sinohydro Corporation, signed an agreement to build the Hat Gyi dam, which is expected to stand 33 metres tall. Much of its 1360 meggawatts of power will be destined to quench Thailand?s demand for energy. "Thailand?s involvement in this dam means that the roads with close and direct access to the Thai border have become important for the Burmese military. That is why the dam area was targeted in June," said Paul Seint Twa, director of Karen River Watch, an environment group based along the Thai-Burma border. "The Burmese army needs to make the dam site more attractive to the Thai investors." Till such attacks in June, the access road to the dam site was more circuitous?passing through central Burma?or through "areas held by the KNU, which controlled all movement," added Seint Twa during a telephone interview from the Thai-Burma border. "But even after the June attacks, the area is not completely under the Burmese army?s control." The heavy human and environment cost to build the dam is turning the heat on the Abhisit administration. "The government has not decided. It is waiting for recommendations from a committee set up to listen to the concerns," said Pianporn Deetes, coordinator of Living River Siam, a Thai green group based in the northern city of Chiang Mai. "Activists want the government to halt this project, but EGAT wants it to be built." The message to Bangkok from Thai environmentalists is the same as the Karen. "There is a link between the conflict and the dam," Pianporn told IPS. "Our field surveys show the area around the dam is becoming more militarised." ____________________________________ ON THE BORDER November 1, The Christian Science Monitor Next year's elections push ruling generals to contain dissidents and quell insurgencies ? without annoying China - Simon Montlake Bangkok, Thailand - The military junta of Burma (Myanmar) has been busy consolidating control ahead of 2010 elections. Last month it upheld a sentence giving opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi 18 more months of house arrest, ignoring US calls for her release and its rare offer to engage the pariah regime. But the government still struggles to quell opposition among ethnic insurgency groups ? it has cease-fire agreements with 17 of them ? in the country's north and east. The best-armed group is probably the United Wa State Army (UWSA), with at least 20,000 combatants and Chinese-made weapons. The latest flare-up, in the east Burma region of Kokang, in August, sent 30,000 refugees across the border to China, prompting an unusually stern response from that powerful neighbor. Burmese soldiers captured the insurgents' base on Aug. 24. What is Burma?s goal? The military would like to neutralize armed threats to its authority before elections next year, its first since 1990. The so-called cease-fire groups ? rebels that have signed truces but not laid down arms ? are seen as potential spoilers. Ethnic leaders want more autonomy and may block the vote. Last year, the junta said that all cease-fire groups must convert their armies into border guards under military command. This proposal has been strongly resisted by several groups, including the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, the armed wing in Kokang. By attacking the MNDAA, the junta hopes to scare other groups into complying. "I don't think the Burmese [military] will give up. They want to get these groups under their control," says Aung Zaw, the editor of Irrawaddy, a Burmese publication in Thailand. Why does China?s response matter? China is the closest that Burma has to an ally. It has repeatedly blocked efforts by Western powers to take tougher multilateral action on Burma. China is the regime's main supplier of weapons. Its companies have invested in Burma. Two new pipelines to carry Burmese gas and transshipped crude oil to China are starting construction and would pass through the insurgent-plagued north. But China's backing of Burma doesn't mean it pulls the strings. Nor is the junta comfortable with growing Chinese influence, according to the International Crisis Group (ICG), a think tank in Brussels. The violence in Kokang was an irritant to bilateral relations as it spilled over the border and took the lives of ethnic Chinese. In public, China urged Burma to protect the rights of Chinese citizens. In private, Beijing was furious that it had no warning of the attack, says the ICG. Chinese officials have longstanding ideological ties to former Communist rebels in Burma, including the MNDAA. Cultivating rebel groups along the border is a buffer against Burma's military. What might Burma do next? Though no fighting has been reported since Kokang fell, the big fear is that the conflict will spread to areas controlled by the UWSA or the Kachin Independence Army, two rebel groups that strongly oppose the border-guard policy. This could turn a small-scale conflict into a civil war. Burmese troops continue to fight rebels in the eastern states of Shan and Karen that never signed cease-fires but can only mount guerrilla raids and lack the firepower to hold territory. A wider conflict has implications for refugee protection, given their flow across the Kokang border into China, says Jim Della-Giacoma, director for Southeast Asia for the ICG, who is based in Jakarta, Indonesia. "The fighting has the potential to spread into other areas controlled by different ethnic groups in Myanmar. If this happened, some predict the impact in terms of refugees would be much greater," he says. What is the US response, and why is it rethinking its policy on Burma? The United States hasn't said much on Kokang, though officials recognize that ethnic unrest threatens any transition to greater civilian rule. In September, the US announced it would start to engage Burma, but keep its sanctions in place. Ms. Suu Kyi said she supported the new policy if opposition groups were included in any dialogue. After several years of trying to isolate and punish Burma, the US now intends to engage the regime through direct talks, though the Obama administration says it won't lift economic and political sanctions until it sees progress. Human rights activists have argued for tougher sanctions if Burma doesn't change its behavior. How might this affect elections? Fighting in border areas would delay the voting there. Wider conflict could lead to a postponement of the elections. Indeed, some analysts think this may be a deliberate military tactic, says editor Aung Zaw. That said, the regime has stuck to its democracy road map so far, even holding a referendum on a new constitution soon after a devastating cyclone hit in May 2008. No date has been set, and political parties still don't know how and when they can campaign. ____________________________________ November 2, Democratic Voice of Burma Hundreds flee homes in eastern Burma - Thurein Soe Military offensives by the Burmese army against a Karen opposition group have caused ?hundreds? of civilians to flee their homes in the past fortnight, a senior Karen official said. Burmese troops have also been using Karen civilians as army porters, according to Karen National Union (KNU) joint secretary, Saw Hla Ngwe. ?Hundreds of locals have been displaced since the third week of October. Their farms, left unattended, have gone to waste,? he said. There has been an increase in troop activity in Moe Oo and other townships under KNU control, he added. The news follows a report released last week by the Thailand Burma Border Consortium (TBBC) that warned of increasing security threats in Karen state. The destruction of some 3,500 villages by the Burmese army and proxy Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) since 1996 was comparable to Darfur, the report said, ?and has been recognised as the strongest single indicator of crimes against humanity in eastern Burma?. The report also said that around 75,000 people in eastern Burma had been forced to flee their homes in the past year, while more than half a million remain internally displaced. The Thai government is also said to be concerned about a possible increase in Burmese refugees crossing the border to escape fighting as the government prepares for elections next year. The Washington-based Refugees International (RI) warned last month that Thailand faces a ?wave of refugees? prior to the elections. In June this year around 5,000 Karen refugees crossed into Thailand to escape fighting, although many have since returned. The conflict between the Burmese government and the KNU has stretched over six decades, and is thought to be one of the world?s longest running. The DKBA, which split from the KNU in 1995, is alleged to be vying for control of Karen state in lieu of creating a black market trade zone. ____________________________________ BUSINESS / TRADE November 3, Agence France Presse Hyundai to build offshore gas platform in Myanmar Seoul - South Korea's Hyundai Heavy Industries, the world's largest shipbuilder, said Monday it has won a 1.4 billion dollar deal to build an offshore gas platform in Myanmar. It said it secured the order from Daewoo International, a South Korean trading company which is leading a consortium to develop the gasfield off Rakhine state near the border with Bangladesh. Hyundai Heavy said it would build a platform capable of producing 500 million cubic feet of gas per day. Daewoo International plans to supply gas from the field by May 2013 to China. The shipbuilder said an official contract would be signed in December after Myanmar's approval. Daewoo International in August announced investment of some 1.7 billion dollars to develop the gasfield as head of a consortium including state-run companies from India and South Korea. Myanmar, which has been ruled by the military since 1962, is under economic sanctions by the United States and Europe because of its human rights record and long-running detention of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. But the impact of the sanctions has been weakened as neighbours such as China, India and Thailand spend billions of dollars for a share of its oil and gas reserves. ____________________________________ DRUGS October 31, Mizzima Drug smuggling to Thailand mounts - Usa Pichai Chiang Mai? Two drug smugglers were shot dead by Thai security forces in gun battles in Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai province, north of Thailand even as the Thai government expressed worry that more drugs would be smuggled into the country given the fighting between the Burmese Army and ethnic armed groups. Col Somsak Nilbanjerdkul, Deputy Phamuang Task Force of the Thai Third Army said on Saturday that two drug traffickers were shot dead in gun battles with Thai troops in Houi San Village of Mae Ai district, Chiang Mai Province border with Burma. Col Somsak said the clashes occurred on Saturday, when border patrols from the task force found armed men trying to cross into Thailand. They opened fire on Thai forces. The gun battle lasted more than 10 minutes. Officials found two unidentified bodies believed to be of Wa soldiers. They also found 50,000 methamphetamines in a bag, labeled ?WY? produced in Burma. The other gunmen fled. On Friday, Pol Maj Gen Songtham Alpaj, Chiang Rai Provincial Police Chief said that officials were apprehensive that drug trafficking would increase in the area. On Friday, The police set up a check point in Phaya Mangrai district and inspected a car used by traffickers. The smugglers tried to escape and opened fire on the police, according to a report in a Thai news website the Manager. After the gun fight the police inspected the area and found two bodies identified as that of Pichit Tochuwech and Somsak Buachuwong. They seized 48,000 methamphetamines and seven kilograms of Ice drugs from the car. The Thai Deputy Prime Minister, Suthep Teuksuban said on Thursday tension along the Thailand?Burma border had increased possibly due to fighting between the Burmese Army and an ethnic armed group. Thai authorities expected the armed group would distribute more drugs in Thailand for buying weapons. The Thai authorities would beef up surveillance on the border. Suthep visited Chiang Rai Province on Wednesday to review the situation on the Thailand-Burma border. He said that the equipment used by drug control officials were not adequate for operations against drug traffickers. ?There are reports that chemicals for manufacturing drugs are being sent to the border. The chemicals are legal but I asked the officials to review security in the area to check inflow of the substance,? he said. Besides, Chartchai Suttthiklom, the Deputy Director of the Department of Correction said on Friday that the problem of drug trafficking despite arrests and detention of drug traffickers in several prisons in Thailand has not checked the problem. ?We are asking for cooperation from mobile phone companies to cut signals in prison areas and increase surveillance on possible smuggling of cell phones into prisons,? he said. Officials would transfer kingpins among drug traffickers to Bangkok?s five high security prisons; Bang Kwang Klang, Klong Prem, Khao Bin , Klong Pai Prison and the Central Correctional Institution For Drug Addicts to check the problem. ____________________________________ November 2, Narinjara 9,000 Yaba Tablets Seized in Maungdaw Maungdaw - Burmese border forces seized 9,000 yaba tablets from a house in Maungdaw on the western Burmese border during a raid, a police source reported. The source said that a police team led by Inspector Kyaw Htet raided the house of U Chaung Chu in Ward No. 2 in Maungdaw at 11 am on Saturday and seized the yaba tablets. A constable who participated in the raid said, "Chaung Chu concealed the yaba tablets in the deep ground under the ladder of the house. We recovered 9,000 yaba tablets at the place and arrested all the family members." Chaung Chu managed to evade arrest but his wife, daughter, son, and brother-in-law were arrested for being connected with the seized yaba tablets. "The family members of Chaung Chu have been interrogated at the police station to find other drug traffickers connected with the yaba smuggling to Bangladesh," the constable said. This is the first time this year a large haul of yaba tablets have been seized on the western Burmese border. Maungdaw police also arrested Maung Tun Win on 28 October along with 100 yaba tablets at the Maungdaw jetty while he was preparing the drugs for transport to Bangladesh. Many drug syndicates in Burma and Bangladesh smuggle Burmese-made yaba tablets to Bangladesh across the Naff River because the Burmese drugs yield a high profit in the black markets of Bangladesh. ____________________________________ REGIONAL November 3, Wall Street Journal Myanmar's Neighbors Advance Pipeline Project Planned Oil-and-Gas Development Is Seen Lifting Country's Financial Strength as the West Attempts to Weaken Ruling Junta ? WSJ Staff Reporter Hsipaw, Myanmar -- China and its neighbors are moving ahead on a multibillion-dollar oil-and-gas pipeline project that promises to greatly enhance the financial strength of Myanmar's military regime and boost its political clout in Asia. That promise comes as the U.S. is seeking new ways to weaken Myanmar's regime, which has used force and imprisonment to subdue political opposition and ethnic separatists over the years, and which some analysts fear could someday pose a threat to other countries as it builds up its military. Past strategies, including the use of economic sanctions to hobble Myanmar's junta, have largely failed. Many details of the project remain a mystery. Myanmar's highly secretive military government has disclosed little, and the main foreign companies involved, including China National Petroleum Corp. and Daewoo International Corp. of South Korea, have said little in recent months aside from some general outlines and cost estimates of their plans. But activity is ramping up along the proposed route, residents say. In September, a crew of two-dozen Chinese engineers showed up to survey the path through this once-quiet mountain town, which is becoming a major crossroads for trade with China, a few hours' drive away. "It's very hard work, in the mountains," said one of the workers, as he ate fried eggs and papaya one morning in a local guesthouse. The man, who didn't give his name, said he worked for an arm of CNPC. When completed, the pipeline will help unlock large untapped deposits of natural gas off Myanmar's coast and carry it hundreds of miles to southern China, expanding Myanmar's role as one of Asia's important energy exporters and enhancing its influence over other countries that rely on its supplies. As a new multi-billion-dollar pipeline to China gets under way, the quiet mountain town of Hsipaw may never be the same again. The project also is expected to include a port that can take deliveries of oil from the Middle East and Africa before transferring them to China. That will give China a new route for oil that bypasses the congested Strait of Malacca near Singapore, which handles a large portion of China's imported crude today. All this should improve China's energy security while generating about $1 billion or more in annual revenue for Myanmar's government over 30 years, according to estimates by advocacy groups tracking the project, including the Shwe Gas Movement, based in Thailand. It is an annual payday equivalent to roughly a third of the country's existing foreign-exchange reserves. The project is an important part of China's wider strategy to diversify energy sources and reduce its reliance on supplies that could be blocked easily by foreign powers or pirates. Chinese media reported this year that full-scale construction of the Myanmar pipeline would begin in September, but an official at a pipeline division of CNPC said work had been delayed by ethnic tensions along the pipeline route. An official at Daewoo said work on the gas portion should begin by year's end. Daewoo has said the overall investment, which includes developing the offshore gas with other partners, including Myanmar Oil & Gas Enterprise, Korea Gas Corp., Oil & Natural Gas Corp. of India, and GAIL (India) Ltd., will cost at least $3 billion. Other partners have put the total at nearly double that amount. The project will likely make it harder for U.S. officials to achieve their goal of weakening the regime. The U.S. and Europe imposed tough sanctions on Myanmar after its ruling junta ignored a 1990 national election won by supporters of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who remains under house arrest. Many analysts argue sanctions have only pushed Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, deeper into the arms of Asian countries, such as China and North Korea, that still do business with the regime. In September, the U.S. government decided it would step up dialogue with Myanmar military officials to rebuild U.S. influence there, though it says sanctions will remain in place for now. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and a deputy are expected to travel to Myanmar Tuesday for a two-day visit, as part of the new initiative. More recently, though, the region -- including this small city up the road from Hsipaw -- has started to take on a new commercial importance as a transit point for trade from China, which is a few hours away by road. The pipeline project isn't without risks, especially for China. The route traverses border regions, including areas near Hsipaw, rife with ethnic tensions. Many residents in the area say they detest China's growing influence. In August, Myanmar military forces clashed with local rebels near the pipeline route, killing more than 30 and sending 30,000 residents fleeing into China, resulting in a rare public rebuke of Myanmar leaders from China. Myanmar experts say further violence is possible, if not likely, in advance of a national election scheduled for next year -- the first such vote since 1990. The project also has attracted the ire of human-rights groups that say any project built in Myanmar will lack sufficient environmental and social safeguards. Daewoo and CNPC declined to comment on those concerns. The advocates point to the other major pipeline project in Myanmar -- the Yadana project developed by Total SA, Unocal Corp. and others in the 1990s -- that carries gas to neighboring Thailand for its power grid, even as much of Myanmar suffers from daily power outages. International advocacy groups alleged a host of human-rights abuses with the project, including forced labor and land confiscations. In September, a Washington-based group called EarthRights International said Myanmar's military had siphoned off $4.8 billion in revenue from the project, storing much in foreign banks. An official at Myanmar's public-relations department declined to comment and referred questions to another ministry whose staff wasn't available to respond. Total and Chevron Corp., which later bought Unocal, have said they weren't connected to any abuses and that their investments are benefiting local residents. In Hsipaw, many people seem unaware a pipeline is even contemplated. A once-quiet town of wood and concrete buildings, including an Art Deco movie house, it is becoming a major crossroads for trade with China, which is a few hours away by car. A temporary bridge across the local river is loaded down with Chinese trucks while a new, bigger bridge is being built, and the honking of horns can be heard echoing throughout the valley from a mountaintop Buddhist temple nearby. At least one guesthouse in the area is adding a wing to accommodate the expected influx of Chinese workers for the pipeline. But many of the local residents who said they were aware of the project said they expected it to bring little but trouble. The pipeline "is only good for the government," said one resident, who works as a waiter. "China is colonizing our country." Others said they believed that only residents who have connections with the military will benefit or get jobs. Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page A10 ____________________________________ November 2, The Star (Malaysia) Plight of the stateless For thousands of people living along the Thai-Myanmar border, citizenship is a major issue. So major that it could determine whether they end up being trafficked as sex prisoners, child slaves or forced labour. Many of the fugitives escaping the military junta in Myanmar have sad stories. Their faces recount torture, savagery, violence and barbaric slavery. Those working as sex slaves are easily spotted in brothels, massage parlours, street corners and condominiums across the globe. The coffee consumed in middle-class living rooms may come from the child working 18 hours a day to harvest the beans. The cheap market trinkets? Think of the young girl stabbed with scissors, forced to work without food and pay, and brutally assaulted for being tired. For many of these people, citizenship is a word next to heaven. It is the key to restoring their dignity as human beings. Mer Saw is 47. She fled her hometown near Yangon when she was 16. ?If I did not run, I would be killed or enslaved by the military.? So she walked to the banks of the Salawin river and crossed to the border of Thailand. For the next 31 years, she roamed the rural villages in Thailand, never daring to venture further for fear of being caught and killed. Now married with three children, her family moves from one place to another to find work. Other than odd jobs around the villages, her family subsists on occasional gifts of rice and oil from sympathetic people aware of her plight. Even though Thai law provides for citizenship under certain qualifications, it is often complicated and impeded by practical difficulties. According to the current migration policy in Thailand, all migrants from Myanmar, Cambodia and Lao PDR who do not hold a temporary passport must leave the country by Feb 28, 2010. For Mer and many like her, citizenship will remain an elusive dream while she continues to eke out a living through whatever meagre means available. Child protection The best way to protect a child from being sexually trafficked and exploited is to spot the tell-tale signs and take preventive measures. ?We should keep a lookout for those who may not be sex slaves, but are on the path of vulnerability,? said Carmen M. Madri??n, executive director of ECPAT International. (The acronym stands for End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and the Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes; a global network of independent grassroots organisations.) The glaring symptoms: ● Absent from school for long periods and suddenly show up owning items they could not afford. ● Appearing to be mentally stressed. ● Very tired physically, due to spending active nights. ● Significant changes in behaviour ? moodiness, aggressiveness, or passivity. ● Associating with ?new people? in their lives. ?It is important not to penalise the child for being enticed into the flesh trade,? said Madri??n during the global launch of The Body Shop Child Sex Trafficking Campaign in Bangkok. The proper response is to step in and offer the support that is needed. Once a potential child sex-slave is spotted, measures should be taken to contact the social welfare body as well as relevant NGOs. ?The biggest challenge is to change cultural perception of sexuality,? said Madri??n. ?People see having a young partner as a conquest.? Children reaching puberty show signs of physical growth and there is a tendency to see them as ?no longer children?, she explained. ?This is a norm tolerated in societies in Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America.? Every year, an estimated 1.2 million child victims are trafficked for sexual exploitation or cheap labour (ILO and Unicef). Despite international laws to keep them safe, enforcement and complications in social norms often do not result in adequate protection for them. ____________________________________ November 3, The Daily Start (Bangladesh) Rohingya trouble in jobs abroad - Porimol Palma and M Abul Kalam Azad Out of their designated camp, Rohingya refugees are seen on a road at Kutupalong in Ukhiya upazila of Cox's Bazar. Rohingyas are now migrating as workers to different countries, which may thwart government efforts to repatriate them. Apart from causing various internal difficulties, some Rohingya refugees, who have been staying in the southeastern part of Bangladesh, are now creating trouble abroad, threatening the country's overseas labour market and putting the government in a fix. Officials and experts said many Rohingya refugees are becoming voters, managing passports illegally, and migrating as workers to different countries, which may thwart government efforts to repatriate them. Around 700 Rohingyas, who already made their way to Saudi Arabia, put Bangladesh in a spot of bother after being captured. Saudi authorities arrested them and kept them in a deportation centre in Jeddah, and are now pressing Bangladesh to take them back. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), the largest labour market for Bangladeshi migrant workers, also hinted that they would not address to Bangladeshi workers' problems if the arrested Rohingyas were not taken back. The government, considering the seriousness of the problem, sent a three-member delegation to Saudi Arabia early October to talk with the Saudi officials and find a solution. "The arrested Rohingyas are Myanmar nationals but Saudi authorities claimed that they entered the country with Bangladeshi passports," the delegation, headed by joint secretary (political) of the home ministry Md Nurun Nabi Talukder, mentioned in its report on return. Officials at the home ministry and expatriate welfare and overseas employment ministry said the Rohingyas usually destroy their passports and seek Saudi assistance for shelter and jobs, which were also provided to them on humanitarian grounds. "But the issue has turned out to be a major concern as Saudi Arabia is Bangladesh's largest labour market with around 2 million Bangladeshis working there," said an official, adding that KSA significantly reduced the number of visas issued to Bangladeshis during the last two years. He said the KSA has also not been allowing Bangladeshis to transfer work permits from one to another employer, forcing thousands of Bangladeshis to return home. Of the 700 Rohingyas, Saudi authorities could only provide passport numbers and addresses of 52. The Bangladeshi delegation said if it could be identified that they are Bangladeshis, they would be returned home. "Families of these 52 or others arrested are staying in Saudi Arabia. As their families are large, it is apprehended that at least 10 will have to be brought back with each of the listed 'Rohingyas'. If this process starts, it will continue and Bangladesh will have to bring back many more," the report says. In its detailed report, the delegation said Saudi authorities think the Rohingyas got involved in various crimes there which prompted them to try to deport them. As Saudi authorities asked Bangladesh to take back those who went there with Bangladeshi passports, the delegation said Bangladesh is eager to solve the problem but it cannot accept them unless their nationalities are confirmed. "One cannot be a Bangladeshi just because one speaks Bangla." After interviews with some of them in the deportation centre, the delegation said Rohingyas are not interested in returning to Bangladesh. They said they are not citizens of Bangladesh. "Addressing the issue is very difficult as it is not any common consular matter; rather it has humanitarian, administrative and political dimensions. As these people entered Saudi Arabia with Bangladeshi passports, KSA got the scope to press Bangladesh," the delegation observed in the report. Saudi authorities are also asking Bangladesh mission there to issue or renew Bangladeshi passports even though they know well that those people were actually from Myanmar, the delegation said. Home Secretary Abdus Sobhan Sikder said the government has already directed authorities concerned to make sure that no more Rohingyas can infiltrate Bangladesh and bring to book local influential people who patronise Rohingyas and help them get voter IDs and passports. "We requested the UNHCR to put pressure on Myanmar government to expedite the repatriation process," he told The Daily Star, adding that the Rohingya refugees have been creating problems for Bangladesh at home and abroad. About the Saudi crisis, the home secretary said Bangladesh will not accept them if they are not identified as Bangladesh nationals. Following a mass influx of Rohingyas to Bangladesh in the 90's, around 2.4 lakh were repatriated. Officials concerned say that apart from the 25,000 registered Rohingya refugees in two camps in Cox's Bazar, there are around 4 lakh illegal Rohingyas living in Cox's Bazar, Bandarban, Khagrachhari and Rangamati. With the help of a section of passport officials and local leaders in these districts, many became voters, and got Bangladeshi passports to go to Saudi Arabia on umrah and hajj visas and overstayed. Officials say around 1 lakh Rohingyas live there and they might have gone there from Bangladesh. Abdus Sobhan Sikder said, "If the Rohingyas get voter ID cards by providing false information those must be confiscated." ____________________________________ OPINION / OTHER November 2, Wall Street Journal (Opinion Asia) Endangering the Next Kim Dae-jung Washington sends confusing signals to the people who could bring change from within ? Michael J. Green Since taking office President Barack Obama has used strong words to describe the importance he places on human rights, democracy and the rule of law. In July, he told China's high-powered delegation to the first U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue that "support for human rights and human dignity is ingrained in America" and that the "religion and culture of all peoples must be respected and protected, and that all people should be free to speak their minds." In his September 24 address to the United Nations General Assembly, he promised "that America will always stand with those who stand up for their dignity and their rights." As the president prepares to travel to Asia this month, should anyone in the region doubt the United States' commitment to these values? Unfortunately, there is doubt. Despite Mr. Obama's statements, the administration's specific actions on issues ranging from Burma to Tibet are creating the impression that Washington has a growing list of concerns that trump human rights and democracy. The president and his team deserve support for attempting new approaches to intractable problems. It makes sense to talk directly to the junta in Burma and to broaden the agenda for cooperation with China. The problem is that the administration's emphasis on engagement is leading the region's autocrats and dictators to see an opening for further repression at home. The most obvious case is Tibet. The Dalai Lama has met with the American president at the White House during every visit to Washington since 1991. Initially, the Obama administration signaled it would continue this tradition during the Tibetan spiritual leader's planned visit in October, but later changed its mind. The White House may have hoped a subtler approach to the Tibet problem would pave the way for a successful presidential visit to China and yield quiet results for Tibet. Fair enough?but the opposite is happening. The Chinese are raising the ante on the Tibetans, demanding that the Dalai Lama cease all foreign travel and meetings with other international leaders as a precondition for resuming stalled Sino-Tibetan talks. Beijing is also putting pressure on other nations to follow the U.S. example, including India, which politely gave Beijing a firm "no" to its demand that Delhi stop the Dalai Lama from visiting his followers in disputed Arunachal Pradesh. Rather than viewing gestures on Tibet as evidence of goodwill to be rewarded, the Chinese reaction has been to pocket the concessions and demand more?steadily asserting its position that regime behavior and internal affairs are not the business of the international community. In the long run, this will only complicate efforts to encourage China to use its increasing power as a responsible stakeholder. There are also confusing signals on Burma. After a "Burma policy review," the administration reasonably concluded that neither sanctions nor engagement alone were likely to change the behavior of the regime and announced that the U.S. was going to try a new approach that employed both. In September Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell testified to the Senate that the U.S. would not ease sanctions without meaningful steps by the junta and reserved the right to strengthen sanctions if there is not progress. This was the right basis for beginning the dialogue. But the administration has also stated that engagement will be a sustained and long-term process, implying it would not necessarily hinge on the regime's short-term behavior. In response, Burma's prime minister, General Thein Sein, announced in late October that the U.S. had "softened its approach." The junta also symbolically allowed international diplomats to have access to Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. However, the junta has concurrently increased its internal suppression of ethnic minorities and democracy activists since the administration's policy review and engagement strategy began. In June the Burmese military drove 5,000 members of the Karen minority across the border into Thailand, the largest exodus of Karen in a decade. In August the junta sentenced Ms. Suu Kyi to an additional 18 months of house imprisonment. In August and September the junta began a major military offensive against the Kokang people in northern Burma, driving over 30,000 refugees into China. Just last week the regime arrested 50 students, journalists and political activists, even as the U.S. prepared to send its first senior-level delegation to Burma this week for high-level talks with the junta. Tibet and Burma illustrate the administration's serious dilemma: how to prevent its commitment to engagement from being perceived as a sign of shifting U.S. priorities and a greater tolerance for repression. It is damaging enough that Beijing and Naypyidaw are receiving this signal, but even minor adjustments in U.S. policy have a major ripple effect among friendly states also grappling with how to encourage greater democracy and human rights in the region. The European Union was poised to activate stronger sanctions against Burma but is now hesitating. Members of the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations were engaging in a painful but important internal debate about how to implement the human-rights and democracy principles in their new charter with respect to Burma, but at their most recent summit in Thailand the focus was entirely on what the U.S. would do to help solve the problem. The president should use his visit to Asia to correct the confusing signals Washington is sending about the U.S. commitment to human rights and democracy. The administration does not need to abandon its aim of seeking results through direct dialogue with Burma's leadership nor curtail its ambitious agenda for cooperation with China. But the administration should not be afraid that a clear stand on human rights and democracy will jeopardize those goals. President Obama can begin by announcing his clear intention to meet with the Dalai Lama early next year and pressing Chinese President Hu Jintao to resume dialogue with the Dalai Lama's representatives without preconditions. Mr. Obama can use the trip to clarify, in his meetings with Southeast Asian leaders on the margins of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, that the U.S. will increase targeted financial sanctions on Burma if repression continues to escalate. The U.S. should also re-engage Burma's neighbors to pressure the regime for change by stating that the U.S. will continue its new approach only if Ms. Suu Kyi is released and there are real opportunities for the democratic opposition and ethnic minorities to participate in a fair political process. Finally, he should use his public addresses to single out and demonstrate support for those dissidents and prisoners of conscience who will someday emerge as the future Kim Dae-jungs and Vaclav Havels of Asia. For it is they who face the greatest uncertainty if America's intentions remain unclear. Mr. Green is senior advisor and Japan chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and associate professor at Georgetown University. This is the first article in an occasional series on the Obama administration's human-rights record.