BurmaNet News, November 2, 2009

[Editor]

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. Madriñán, 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 Madriñán 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 Madriñán. “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.