From editor at burmanet.org Tue Nov 3 17:57:38 2009 From: editor at burmanet.org (Editor) Date: Tue, 3 Nov 2009 17:57:38 -0500 (EST) Subject: BurmaNet News, November 3, 2009 Message-ID: <54996.63.173.78.131.1257289058.squirrel@webmail3.pair.com> November 3, 2009 Issue #3832 INSIDE BURMA Mizzima: Junta chief visits cyclone devastated delta twice in a row Mizzima: Arrested poet Khant Min Htet untraceable INTERNATIONAL Guardian: Top US diplomats begin talks with Burmese junta Al Jazeera: US envoys arrive in Myanmar Irrawaddy: Suu Kyi to meet Campbell in Rangoon hotel ON THE BORDER AFP: Myanmar Rohingyas swap suppression for squalor SHAN: Junta?s strategy is to leave Kachin, Wa till end TRADE The Australian: Pipeline could boost military regime DRUGS Asia Times: Drugs, guns and war in Myanmar DVB: Drugs burned during ceremony ?were fake? OPINION / OTHER The Nation (Bangkok): Lifting Burma sanctions will not silence the screams ? Ko Bo Kyi ____________________________________ INSIDE BURMA November 3, Mizzima News Junta chief visits cyclone devastated delta twice in a row Chiang Mai ? Burmese junta supremo Snr Gen Than Shwe is making yet another trip to Laputta and Mawlamyinekyun towns in cyclone devastated Irrawaddy delta on Tuesday. Sources in the military establishment said, during the trip, the Than Shwe led team will spend a night in Bassein (Pathein) town, capital of the Irrawaddy division, and will return to Rangoon on Wednesday. Colonel Thein Nyunt, who is also a senior member of the junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA), is reportedly planning a grand reception for the Than Shwe led team. On Monday a 32-member team led by Than Shwe paid a day?s visit to Bogale and Pyapone towns in the Irrawaddy delta in three helicopters but returned to Rangoon in the evening. Than Shwe?s delta trip has been planned since early October but was later cancelled and re-scheduled. The members of the team were informed of the trip at the eleventh hour on October 30, the source said. Than Shwe?s visit to the delta, coincides with the visit of United States? Assistant Secretary of State, Kurt Campbell and US ambassador to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Scot Marciel to Burma. The four-member US delegation, which on Tuesday morning arrived in Naypyitaw, will be meeting several junta officials including Minister for Information Brig-Gen Kyaw San and will spend the night in Burma?s new jungle capital. According to the US embassy in Rangoon, the US delegation will arrive in Rangoon and meet the detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Wednesday morning. It will also have a press interaction including a photo session before departing from the country later in the evening. ____________________________________ November 3, Mizzima News Arrested poet Khant Min Htet untraceable - Nem Davies New Delhi ? The whereabouts of poet Khant Min Htet, also the layout designer of Rangoon based Ahlinkar Wutyee Journal, picked up by the police about two weeks ago from his home, is still not known, his family said. The Special Branch (SB) of the police arrested him on October 22 from his home in Thaketa Township. Four days after his arrest, a four-member SB team came to his home again and searched his house. They seized some CDs from his home and a computer hard disk from his journal office. "They just said that they are taking him for questioning but we still do not know his whereabouts. The family is terribly worried," father of Khant Min Htet and Padauk Pwint Thit Editor-in-Chief Maung Sein Ni told Mizzima. His family felt his arrest has something to do with politics but the authorities did not disclose anything about it, his family said. The Thailand based 'Association for Assistance to Political Prisoners-Burma' (AAPP-B) said that at least 41 political activists including members of the Cyclone Nargis volunteer relief workers group 'Lin Let Kye' were arrested in Rangoon last month. (Edited by Ye Yint Aung) ____________________________________ INTERNATIONAL November 3, The Guardian (UK) Top US diplomats begin talks with Burmese junta Meetings with senior military officials in Burma are test of Obama administration's new policy of engagement with dictatorship US diplomats Kurt Campbell (left) and Scot Marciel arrived in Burma today for meetings with senior junta officials. Photograph: Tim Sloan/AFP/Getty Images The Obama administration's new policy of engagement with Burma faces its first test today as two senior diplomats begin America's highest-level visit to the military dictatorship for more than a decade. Kurt Campbell, the US assistant secretary of state for east Asian affairs, and his deputy, Scot Marciel, arrived in Burma for meetings with senior junta officials. They will also meet the country's imprisoned pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, who was sentenced to another 18 months' house arrest in August after being found guilty of harbouring an American intruder at her home in May. World leaders denounced the sentence, which will prevent her from taking part in elections planned for next year. Campbell's two-day trip marks a significant shift from the policy of isolation supported by previous administrations. The US, which imposed sanctions in the late 1990s, tightened the measures two years ago after the Burmese military brutally suppressed peaceful democracy protests led by Buddhist monks. The last senior US diplomat to visit the country was Madeleine Albright, who went in her role as Bill Clinton's US ambassador to the UN in 1995. Five years earlier the regime drew international condemnation after it ignored an election victory by Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD). The Nobel peace laureate has been detained for 14 of the last 20 years. Washington has said it will maintain political and economic pressure while it waits for Burma to improve its human rights record, implement democratic reforms and cut its military ties with North Korea. Campbell said last month that if the junta failed to respond, "we will reserve the option of tightening sanctions on the regime and its supporters as appropriate". He was scheduled to meet the Burmese prime minister, Thein Sein, in the administrative capital, Naypyitaw, today, but not the junta's hardline senior general, Than Shwe, who has led the country for the past 17 years. Campbell will meet Aung San Suu Kyi and other NLD members in Rangoon tomorrow, reports said. Washington's policy shift came after more than a decade of sanctions failed to force Burma to implement democratic reforms or release the country's estimated 2,200 political prisoners. Campbell's visit comes amid signs that the junta may be willing to soften its stance against Aung San Suu Kyi, who said recently she supported Washington's fresh diplomatic approach. Thein Sein reportedly told other Asian leaders last month that the regime saw "a role" for her in bringing about reconciliation before next year's elections, although it was not clear what that role would be. A Japanese delegate suggested that the junta could be preparing to relax the conditions of her house arrest. But Burma observers played down the prospects for progress this week, describing the trip as a test of the generals' sincerity. "The US wants to suss out whether or not they have a genuine dialogue partner," Sean Turnell, an analyst at Macquarie University in Australia, told Reuters. "The overtures towards warming ties with the US have come from officials lower down, and the US is trying to get a feel for how committed the generals are." ____________________________________ November 3, Aljazeera.net US envoys arrive in Myanmar Two senior US envoys have arrived in Myanmar as the Obama administration steps up efforts to engage the country's military government. Kurt Campbell, the assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, and his deputy Scot Marciel, arrived in the remote jungle capital of Naypyidaw on Tuesday at the start of the most high profile American visit to the country in 14 years. Campbell is the highest ranking US official to travel to Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, since Madeleine Albright went as US ambassador to the UN in 1995. But Myanmar officials said the two envoys will probably not get to meet Senior General Than Shwe, the head of the military government, only getting access to Thein Sein, the prime minister. The officials are also expected to travel to Yangon on Wednesday to meet Aung San Suu Kyi, the opposition leader, according to the US embassy in Yangon. 'First stage' Nyan Win, a spokesman for Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD), told the AFP news agency that the party sees the visit "as the start of direct engagement between the US and Myanmar government". "But we do not expect the exact and big change from this meeting. This visit is just a first stage," he added. He said the NLD had been told that the US envoys would meet the party's central executive committee at their headquarters on Wednesday and would meet Aung San Suu Kyi the same day. Washington signalled a sharp shift in its policy towards Myanmar in September, saying it would be "engaging directly with Burmese authorities", and holding the highest-level contact in a decade with Myanmar officials in New York later in the month. But the US has also said that it will not ease sanctions on the Southeast Asian country without progress on democracy and human rights. Larry Dinger, the charge d'affaires at the US embassy in Yangon, said in an interview published in the semi-official Myanmar Times newspaper this week that Washington wanted to make progress on "important issues" but would maintain sanctions "until concrete progress is made". Backing engagement Aung San Suu Kyi has welcomed US engagement of the military government and in late September wrote a letter to Than Shwe to offer her co-operation in getting Western sanctions lifted after years of backing harsh measures against the ruling generals. The generals granted the Nobel peace laureate two rare meetings with a government minister and allowed her to see Western diplomats last month. Thein Sein, Myanmar's prime minister, told Asian leaders at a summit in Thailand last month that the government sees a role for Aung San Suu Kyi in fostering reconciliation ahead of the promised elections next year, but it was not clear what form this would take. Aung San Suu Kyi, who has spent 14 of the past 20 years in detention, continues to be kept under house arrest after having her detention extended by 18 months in August over an incident in which an American man swam to her lakeside house uninvited. A foreign diplomat in Yangon told the AFP that the visit by the US envoys was "important but at the same time without immediate consequence". "It is necessary to be cautious. Everyone knows there is a risk of relations going cold again in two months," the diplomat said. ____________________________________ November 3, Irrawaddy Suu Kyi to Meet Campbell in Rangoon Hotel ? Wai Moe The US delegation led by Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell is scheduled to meet pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi at Rangoon?s Inya Lake Hotel on Wednesday morning. The meeting was confirmed by an official with the US embassy in Rangoon. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity said the embassy had been responsible for arranging the meeting at the hotel. A Burmese woman in Australia wears a badge of Aung San Suu Kyi to show her support for the release of the pro-democracy leader on October 27. (Photo: Getty Images) Following the meeting with Suu Kyi, Campbell will hold talks with opposition and ethnic leaders, the official said. Campbell will hold a press conference on Wednesday at Rangoon International Airport before leaving Burma, the official announced. The State Department official will also report to the press on his Tuesday talks with senior regime officials in Naypyidaw. Journalists in Rangoon report that Burma?s Ministry of Information is allowing photographers access to the US delegation and Suu Kyi when they meet on Wednesday. ?We are permitted by the authorities to take photos of the meeting between the US officials and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, but only a photo opportunity,? said one Rangoon journalist. ?The authorities told us ?no questions?.? Ahead of Campbell?s trip to Burma, Suu Kyi told her lawyer last week that she is ?keenly monitoring? the State Department officials? two-day visit to Burma. Some observers remain skeptical about the visit and its chances of success. ?We are not that excited,? said a senior Rangoon correspondent, speaking on condition of anonymity. ?We have seen this kind of cosmetic [by the junta] in the past.? ?The real question is whether they [the military regime] have genuine political will,? the journalist said. ?People have given them the benefit of a doubt, but whatever they do we treat it with a pinch of salt.? A week before Campbell?s visit, the junta arrested more a dozen relief workers who helped Cyclone Nargis victims, including eight journalists, according to human rights groups. Campbell?s visit follows the launch of a new Burma policy by the Obama administration in Washington. US officials led by Campbell met with a Burmese delegation headed by U Thaung, the Minister of Science and Technology who is a former Burmese ambassador to the US, in New York on Sept. 29. On Oct. 9, the Burmese junta acceded to a request by Suu Kyi for a meeting with diplomats from the US, Britain and Australia to talk about the effectiveness of sanctions. The meeting prompted speculation that Suu Kyi had shifted her stance on sanctions. ?I think most outside observers are misjudging Suu Kyi?s stance,? said Bertil Lintner, a Swedish journalist who is author of many books on Burma. ?She has not changed her minds about sanctions as such. Sanctions are not an end in themselves but they are there to achieve a goal.? Lintner told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday that if the regime is not willing to compromise, then, of course, she would like to see sanctions remain in force until those goals are met. ?By making that statement, Suu Kyi has once again become an active player in the Burmese imbroglio,? he added. ?Now, no one can ignore her. She has showed that she is flexible and reasonable.? Along with the US efforts for democratization in Burma, a key issue in US-Burma relations is cooperation in the fight to defeat the drug trade. ?There are a number of areas in which we might be able improve cooperation to our mutual benefit, such as counter-narcotics, health, environmental protection, and the recovery of the remains of World War II-era missing Americans,? Campbell told the US Congress on Oct.21. Shortly before Campbell?s arrival in Burma, Prime Minter Gen Thein Sein travelled to the Kokang town of Laogai in northeastern Burma on Saturday to attend the incineration of seized narcotic drugs and precursor chemicals. ?This is a kind of signal by the junta to the US,? said Aung Kyaw Zaw, a former communist fighter who observes the Burma situation from China?s Yunnan Province. ?But an open secret here is that the ruling generals have been involved in and ignored drug trading in the country for at least two decades,? ____________________________________ ON THE BORDER November 2, Agence France Presse Myanmar Rohingyas swap suppression for squalor - Shafiq Alam Kutupalong, Bangladesh ? As one of Myanmar's ethnic Muslim Rohingya, 45-year-old Manjurul Islam endured a lifetime of oppression before he finally fled the country for a squalid refugee camp in Bangladesh. Described by UN officials as one of the most persecuted minorities on earth, the Rohingya are not even recognised as citizens by the Myanmar junta. They have no legal right to own land and are forbidden from marrying or travelling without permission. For Islam, decades of systematic discrimination came to a head six months ago, when he says his 18-year-old niece and another woman in his village were raped by soldiers. Islam said he "foolishly" took the case to the chief of the local army camp. "He listened and I thought we had made progress, but then they tied me and my friends up, beat us with leather belts and bamboo sticks and kicked our chests with their boots." Rohingyas hail from Myanmar's Arakan state. Widespread abuse and exploitation have prompted hundreds of thousands to flee across the border to Bangladesh since the early 1990s. Islam and his friends were released a few days later -- but only after his family paid a bribe. Then a group of soldiers destroyed their village's shrimp farms -- their only source of income -- forcing Islam and his neighbours to make a decision they had seen so many make before them. "In the night, we piled into a boat and crossed the river Naf into Bangladesh," he said. According to Islam, more than 800 people fled his village over a two-week period in April, with some crossing into Bangladesh by boat and others walking across the forested, hilly border. "My fifth child was born in the jungle under the open sky as we were fleeing," said Shamsun Nahar, 32, showing her six-month old baby. "Thanks Allah that both of us survived." But survival brought with it fresh deprivation as Nahar and Islam joined an estimated 25,000 Rohingyas living in appalling conditions in a sprawling, refugee camp. Only 28,000 Rohingyas in Bangladesh have been granted official refugee status, allowing them access to three official camps which provide basic amenities. The rest, like Nahar, are confined to the unofficial camp in Kutuplaong in conditions which even hardened aid workers find difficult to imagine. "There is no water or power. Barring children and pregnant women, none have access to food or medicine. When it rains it's impossible to walk and the mud shacks became too muddy to even sleep in," said a worker with Action Contre la Faim (Action Against Hunger, ACF). Following EU pressure, the Bangladeshi government has since May this year allowed ACF and another French charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) limited access to the unofficial camp. "Twenty five thousand Rohingyas are living in dire humanitarian conditions. It's extremely disturbing," said Paul Critchley, the MSF head of mission in Bangladesh. Bangladesh says it is unable to cope with the continued influx of Rohingyas and the spread of the unofficial camp has stoked local tensions. In July, police moved into the camp and destroyed several hundred makeshift dwellings in an operation condemned by MSF as "aggressive and abusive". Despite the squalor and alienation, many Rohingya still feel they are better off here than back in Myanmar. "Here at this camp there are days I don't have any food. But at least I can live freely," said Mamun Rafiq, a Rohingya farmer who migrated three years ago. "In Myanmar if you are a Rohingya, you are entitled to a dog's life: They don't even allow us to wear clean shirts or travel outside our village." Rights groups like the New York-based Human Rights Watch say they have gathered volumes of personal testimony to the abuses visited on the Rohingyas by the Myanmar authorities, including extra-judicial killings and forced labour. "The Burmese government does not just deny Rohingya their basic rights, it denies they are even Burmese citizens," said Elaine Pearson, a deputy director at Human Rights Watch. Mohammad Ali, a Rohingya and head of the Bangladesh-based Arakan Historical Society, said his community's plight began the day Myanmar, formerly Burma, gained independence. "Our fathers fought hand in hand with the Burmese people to win freedom from Britain in 1948. But once Burma won independence, the new rulers thought it was their country not ours," Ali said. Such was the experience of Ezhar Hossain, the son of a wealthy farmer who was elected as a lawmaker in Burma's second post-independence polls in 1956 when he was still in his early 20s. "But my rivals alleged that I used the religion card in the elections. In February 1957, the authorities stripped me of my parliamentary membership," said Hossain, now 75. When democratic rule ended in 1962 following a military coup by general Ne Win, Hossain, still a prominent Rohingya leader, was accused of being a foreigner and standing illegally for election. "I did not wait for justice. I've seen how other leaders were hounded and jailed by the junta. I took a boat one night and fled," he said. Hossain now lives in southern Bangladesh in a tin-shed shack with his son, a janitor at a college. Hossain was lucky in one respect as he became a naturalised Bangladeshi when the country won independence in 1971. For contemporary refugees like Islam and Nahar, the future offers a devil's alternative between life in the camp or a risky and illegal journey by boat to another Southeast Asian country. Hundreds of Rohingya migrants were rescued in Indian and Indonesian waters between December and February after being abandoned at sea with few provisions by the Thai navy. Scores are feared to have died as they drifted in rickety boats for weeks before reaching land. ____________________________________ November 3, Shan Herald Agency for News Junta?s strategy is to leave Kachin, Wa till end The winning strategy of the Burmese military junta brass, ensconced in Naypyidaw, is to subdue smaller ceasefire groups first and deal with the strongest ones, namely, the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and United Wa State Army (UWSA) later, according to an informed source from the country?s capital. Meanwhile, the two would be under siege in order to restrict their movements, cut their revenue and increase their expenditure. ?Like Kokang in August and Khun Sa?s Mong Tai Army in 1996, the regime will also try to create and exploit divisions within each group,? he said. Khun Sa decided to surrender after a mutiny broke out in mid 1995. Until then, he had been staunchly withstanding blockades imposed not only by the Burmese Army and the UWSA, but also by Thailand, where most of his supplies came from. ?Among the four remaining ceasefire groups, Naypyidaw may not think much of the Kayan New Land Party (KNLP) and the New Mon State Party (NMSP) as both are small and isolated,? he explained. ?But as for the two others, the Shan State Army (SSA) North and Mongla, they are considerably stronger and, more importantly, they cover the Wa?s western and southern flanks. The regime will therefore focus their efforts on the two.? The Wa?s northern border with Kokang has already been occupied by the Burmese Army in August. Since then, Mongla, officially Shan State Special Region #4, and the SSA North, officially Shan State Special Region #3, have been under pressure to accept the Border Guard Force (BGF) proposal and Home Guard Force (HGF) proposal respectively. Mongla, on October28, had been ?advised? to resign itself to the BGF status. The media-shy SSA North, meanwhile, was recently told by Maj Gen Aung Than Tut, Commander of the Lashio-based Northeastern Region Command, to stand by their 23 June 2009 letter that said its leadership ?appreciates? the ruling military council?s ?good intentions? and had been meeting and persuading its lower ranks to ?accept? the proposal, according to a report yet to be confirmed. The situation nevertheless might not turn out as planned, according to veteran border watchers. ?Mongla territory, located in the triangle (China, Burma and Laos) is considered by the Wa as their lifeline,? said one. ?It might not let it go, even if it wants to. That might trigger premature military confrontation with the Burmese Army.? Out of Burma?s 17 official ceasefire groups, five are no longer of ceasefire status. Six have already accepted the BGF proposals. ____________________________________ BUSINESS / TRADE November 3, The Australian Pipeline could boost military regime Hsipaw, Burma - CHINA and its neighbours are moving ahead on a multibillion-dollar oil and gas pipeline project that promises to greatly strengthen Burma's military regime financially and boost its political clout in Asia. As a multibillion-dollar pipeline to China gets under way, the quiet mountain town of Hsipaw may never be the same again. That promise comes as the US seeks ways to weaken Myanmar's regime, which has used force and imprisonment over the years to subdue political opposition and ethnic separatists. Past strategies, including the use of economic sanctions to hobble Burma's junta, have largely failed. Many details of the pipeline project remain a mystery. Burma's highly secretive military government has disclosed little and the main foreign companies involved, including China National Petroleum and South Korea's Daewoo, have said little in recent months aside from some general outlines and cost estimates of their plans. According to residents, activity is increasing along the proposed route. In September, a crew of 24 Chinese engineers showed up to survey the path through Hsipaw, a once-quiet mountain town that is becoming a major crossroads for trade with China, a few hours drive away. ``It's very hard work in the mountains,'' one worker said as he ate fried eggs and papaya one morning in a local guesthouse. The man said he worked for an arm of CNPC. When completed, the pipeline will help unlock large untapped deposits of natural gas off Burma's coast and carry it hundreds of kilometres to southern China, expanding Burma's role as one of Asia's energy exporters and increasing its influence over other countries that rely on its supplies. The project is expected also 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. All this should improve China's energy security and generate $US1 billion ($1.1bn) or more in annual revenue for Burma's government over 30 years, according to estimates by advocacy groups, including Thailand's Shwe Gas Movement, which are tracking the project. This is an annual payday equivalent to about 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 Burma 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 the end of the year. According to Daewoo, the overall investment, which includes developing the offshore gas with other partners would cost at least $US3bn. Other partners have put the total at almost double that. The project will probably make it harder for US officials to weaken the Burmese regime. The US and Europe imposed tough sanctions on Burma 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 Burma deeper into the arms of Asian countries, such as China and North Korea. The pipeline project is not without risks, especially for China, because the route traverses border regions, including areas near Hsipaw, that are rife with ethnic tensions. Many residents in the area say they detest China's growing influence and in August, Burmese 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 Burmese leaders by China. The project has attracted the ire of human rights groups that say any project built in Myanmar will lack sufficient environmental and social safeguards. The advocates point to the other major pipeline project in Burma: the Yadana project that carries gas to neighbouring Thailand for its power grid, even as much of Burma suffers from daily power outages. International advocacy groups allege a host of human rights abuses associated with the project, including forced labour and land confiscations. The project was developed by Total, Unocal and others in the 1990s. In September, Washington-based group EarthRights International claimed Burma's military had siphoned off $US4.8bn in revenue from the project, storing much in foreign banks. Total and Chevron, which bought Unocal, claim they are not connected with any abuses and that their investments are benefiting local residents. ____________________________________ DRUGS November 4, Asia Times Drugs, guns and war in Myanmar - Brian McCartan Bangkok - Mounting tensions between Myanmar's military government and ethnic groups with which it has ceasefire agreements in the country's northern regions have spurred a surge in drug trafficking. Driven by militias' growing demand for weapons to counter anticipated government offensives, a narcotics fire-sale is raising concerns of greater instability along the borders of several neighboring countries, including China. Myanmar's military regime has demanded that the insurgent groups with which it agreed ceasefires in the late 1980s and early 1990s hand over their arms to government control. A deadline set for the end of October has been allowed to pass and discussions between the military and two main ethnic armies, the United Wa State Army (UWSA) and the National Democratic Alliance Army Neither side appears willing to back down, prompting speculation that new fighting may be imminent. Under the government's proposed Border Guard Force plan, ethnic armies would be downsized into several battalions consisting of 326 men. Each would have a contingent of Myanmar army and non-commissioned officers and operate under the central command of the Myanmar Army. The junta has said it will provide weapons, equipment, uniforms and even salaries to the proposed units. The generals have indicated that a handover of weapons, either through the border guard scheme or through forced surrender, is key to their plan to achieve national reconciliation by holding general elections next year. The political stakes for that plan are high. The junta has demonstrated a willingness to risk the ire of ally China through an assault in August on the Kokang ceasefire group, which caused a flood of refugees to stream across the border into neighboring China. Both the Myanmar army and the Kokang have since reinforced their troops and appear to be preparing for further hostilities that security analysts predict could spill over into other insurgent-controlled territories. It's still unclear if Myanmar will risk its relations with Beijing by attacking the remaining and better armed ceasefire groups along the Myanmar-China border, a battle plan that has the potential to significantly destabilize southern China. Under the government's plan, the ceasefire groups' political wings will be allowed to transform into political parties to contest the general elections. Ethnic leaders, however, say that handing over their armed forces to government control would entail relinquishing their bargaining power vis-a-vis a regime that frequently uses military force to press its demands. It would also mean handing over much of the apparatus that protects, produces and transports their narcotics trafficking operations. Since a 1989 mutiny that broke up the Communist Party of Burma (CPB) and spawned several ethnic armies in the north - including the UWSA, NDAA and the Kokang group - the drug trade has steadily expanded in the region. The military government has both permitted and profited from the groups' drug production and trafficking, despite official claims to lead an internationally assisted counter narcotics campaign and disingenuous pledges by several of the insurgent groups to be drug-free. The ceasefire groups have plowed their profits into places such as Panghsang and Mong La along the Myanmar-China border, transforming them into boom towns. They have also invested in more legitimate businesses in central Myanmar, as well as in neighboring China and Thailand. For example, the UWSA's financial controller, Wei Xuegang, who is wanted for narcotics trafficking in the United States and Thailand, has built an extensive business empire in Myanmar around his Hong Pang Group. Without firm autonomy agreements with the Myanmar government, a substantial portion of ceasefire groups' profits have gone towards the upkeep of their armies and the procurement of new weapons. According to security analysts, the UWSA has since its 1989 ceasefire agreement grown into the largest and best armed fighting force in Myanmar outside the government's army. The narco-trafficking militia consists of between 15,000 and 20,000 heavily armed foot soldiers. Should negotiations over the border guard plan collapse and a renewed civil war break out in northern Myanmar, ethnic insurgents risk losing access to their extensive drug-financed business operations. According to Sai Khuensai Jaiyen of the Shan Herald Agency for News, an exile-run media organization that closely tracks the drug trade in Shan State, there are reports that Wei has started to sell parts of his business holdings and has suspended some of Hong Pang Group's operations in apparent preparation for hostilities. The company is involved, among other things, in lumber, agriculture, gas stations and department stores in the towns of Lashio, Mandalay and Yangon. Security analysts and counter-narcotics officials in Thailand believe that, without access to funds from their business interests, insurgent groups like the UWSA will be forced to step up their narcotics production and trafficking activities. As nationalist Chinese Kuomintang general Duan Xiwen said in 1967 about fighting in Shan State: " ... to fight you must have an army, and an army must have guns, and to buy guns you must have money. In these mountains the only money is opium" - and now methamphetamines. Insurgent patron China has been the main patron of the ceasefire groups along its border since the CPB mutiny in 1989. The relationship, from Beijing's perspective, is a pragmatic one that ensures that China has leverage against Myanmar's generals with which to protect its large and growing economic and strategic interests in the country. China has provided development and economic assistance to the ceasefire groups, as well as advanced weapons and even some training in their usage. This has included 120mm and 130mm artillery and hand-held surface-to-air missiles. China's goodwill towards the ceasefire groups has been partly contingent on their agreement to curtail drug smuggling into and through China. Pressure from Chinese officials has been placed on ethnic insurgent leaders to prohibit the smuggling of narcotics into China. Much of the drug trade to China consists of opium and heroin, which is becoming a growing problem seen in rising addiction rates in the country. The ability of the UWSA, NDAA and other ceasefire groups to fight will be partially dependant on whether China permits them to maintain their known cross-border businesses and investments, as well as access to weapons and ammunition. Without the ability to generate income through these operations, ethnic insurgent leaders will be faced with the choice of either surrendering once their stocks of ammunition are depleted - as happened to the Kokang in August - or stepping up narcotics production and trafficking to raise funds and purchase arms and ammunition from dealers in Thailand and China. The insurgent groups' main market for narcotics is Thailand. While heroin is still exported to the outside world via well-established and well-protected trafficking routes in Thailand, most of the methamphetamines produced are destined for Thai consumption. China, too, could soon be faced with an upsurge in narcotics smuggling, both to its growing addict population and through well-documented routes across its southern region out to Shanghai and Hong Kong. Myanmar remains China's main source of heroin. Thai counter-narcotics officials are already claiming that the UWSA is engaged in a fire sale by cutting prices to quickly move its stores of narcotics to buy more weapons before hostilities with government forces begin in the approaching cool season. In August, the Thai army quietly revived an elite counter-narcotics force previously known as Task Force 399 and renamed as 151st Special Warfare Company. Task Force 399, which was tasked with interdiction at the border and supported by US Special Forces personnel, was known previously for taking a proactive approach to interdicting drug traffickers including, some analysts of the drug trade say, pursuit across the border into Myanmar territory. Over the past five months, there have been frequent reports in the Thai media about arrests of drug traffickers, disruption of smuggling gangs and seizures of large quantities of narcotics. The New York Times in an October 1 article cited Thai Office of Narcotics Control Board (ONCB) figures that 1,268 kilograms of heroin had been seized between January and August this year, a huge increase on the 57 kilograms seized in the region last year. Last week, the government announced plans for a new drug suppression force to combat trafficking in border provinces next to Myanmar. Thai Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban linked the creation of the new force to an increase in drug trafficking from Myanmar, according to media reports. The plan still needs government approval, but if enacted the new unit will by coordinated by the army's Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC). Regional reach While the bulk of the drug trafficking ceasefire armies are stationed along the Myanmar-China border, the UWSA has also built up a substantial area along the Thai border, contiguous with Thailand's northern Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai provinces, through which much of its heroin and amphetamine trade now passes. Because the Myanmar army controls territory between the main UWSA units, each is largely self-sustaining through their narcotics trafficking. Maintaining the security of this area will be key for access to the Thai market. Another key narcotics trade point is across the Mekong River into Laos. The NDAA operates at least one major trade point jointly with the UWSA at Sop Lwe on the Myanmar side of the river near the small Lao town of Xieng Kok in the northern Luang Nam Tha province, says a researcher familiar with the trade who recently visited the site. This route, stretching across the width of UWSA and NDAA-held territory along the China-Myanmar border, avoids the necessity of sending narcotics shipments south across government-held territory to reach the Thai border. Observers of the regional drug trade have claimed that the UWSA and NDAA have established methamphetamine laboratories in Laos, an accusation that Lao officials have consistently denied. Trafficking routes, however, are much harder to deny. Thai counter-narcotics officials claim methamphetamines and heroin are smuggled through Laos to less well-patrolled points in northeastern Thailand, including Nong Khai, Mukdahan and Ubon Ratchathani provinces. The ONCB reckons between three million and five million methamphetamine pills are smuggled into northeastern Thailand from Laos each year. In a sting operation in July, Thai police arrested two Lao men and a Thai woman in northeastern Udon Thani province with 160,000 methamphetamine tablets worth as much as US$1.4 million when sold in Bangkok. Police allege one of the Lao men was an important trafficker in Laos with direct contact to Myanmar-linked drug labs. An increase in production and trafficking in Myanmar could have far-reaching regional implications. In Vietnam, there has been in recent years an upsurge in trafficking of methamphetamines and other synthetic drugs smuggled through Laos and traced back to northeastern Myanmar. The drugs are known to be smuggled to the northern cities of Hanoi and Haiphong and down the length of country to Ho Chi Minh City, feeding a growing addiction problem. Demand has increased in Vietnam as its large population becomes more affluent. Cambodia and Malaysia have also seen an increase in narcotics trafficked from Myanmar. The production and trafficking of narcotics has fueled a succession of insurgent groups in Myanmar's northeastern region since the 1950's and will continue to do so should fighting with the government resume. Better communications and more efficient trafficking routes and methods, as well as more easily produced synthetic drugs in mobile laboratories, have financed the growth of certain Myanmar insurgent groups. And as they prepare for new hostilities against the government, the region's narcotics problem seems set to grow. Brian McCartan is a Bangkok-based freelance journalist. He may be reached at brianpm at comcast.net. ____________________________________ November 3, Democratic Voice of Burma Drugs burned during ceremony ?were fake? - Naw Say Phaw Around 15 police officers in northeastern Burma have been arrested after allegedly substituting seized drugs, thought to be worth $US20 million, for fake ones prior to them being destroyed. The officers, who belonged to the Taunggyi Special Police Narcotics Unit in Shan state, were arrested following a ?ceremony? to mark Drug Eradication Day last week, according to a source close to the unit. ?A lot of fake drugs were allegedly substituted before burning but the amount of substitution is not yet known exactly,? said the source under condition of anonymity. Locals from Taunggyi told DVB that similar incidents had occurred before but that no official had been arrested or questioned. The former head of the Taunggyi Special Police Narcotics Unit, police chief Khin Maung Lwin, is reportedly under investigation for the incident. The state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported on Monday that the event took place in the Kokang region of Shan state, which in August and September was the site of heavy fighting between Burmese troops and an ethnic Kokang army. Thailand-based Burma expert Bertil Lintner said however that the ceremony may have been a ?public relations exercise? to tarnish the image of the Kokang army. Shan state is the world?s second largest heroin producer after Afghanistan. Recently however it has seen a huge growth in methamphetamine, or ?yaba?, production, much of which arrives in Thailand. It is believed that the United States? delegation currently in Burma will bring up the issue of the country?s drugs trade during talks with government officials. ____________________________________ OPINION / OTHER October 31, The Nation (Bangkok) Lifting Burma sanctions will not silence the screams ? Ko Bo Kyi Mae Sot, Thailand - THE DAY I was arrested was just like any other. I was having lunch with my family, when officers from the Burmese Military Intelligence came to my home and took me away. They shoved me into a car, cuffed my hands behind my back and put a dirty hood over my head. I was forced to lie on the floor so I couldn't be seen, and they pressed guns into my ribs to stop me from crying out. I was being driven to an unknown location and upon arrival, kicked into a room, the door locked behind me. I removed the hood, and looked around the 3x3-metre room and saw blood spattered on the walls. The names of many people were written there, including some of my friends. "Where are they now?" I thought. "Have they been tortured to death? Or are they in prison?" I realised that my own torture had started. I was denied food and water for several days. I was blindfolded and repeatedly interrogated. After each answer I gave, I was punched in the stomach so hard it knocked me to the ground. Every time I was forced to stand up and take it, over and over again. I lost all track of time. I later found out I had held in the interrogation centre for nine days. My "crime" was that I'm a leading member of the All Burma Federation of Student Unions, a banned organisation in Burma. That was in 1990 - but it could have been yesterday. New testimony from political prisoners released under an amnesty in September is remarkably similar to my own. None of it is surprising to me. Myo Yan Naung Thein, a 35 year-old student leader, was released from Thandwe prison in Arakan State. He was arrested on December 15, 2007, and sentenced to two years in jail. After his release, he described his arrest: "While I was on the phone to my mum at a shop on the corner of Hledan Junction [in Rangoon], two men grabbed me I shouted out because I thought that they had kidnapped me by mistake. And then one of them got 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." Describing his own experiences at the interrogation centre, Myo Yan Naung Thein said: "They were very brutal. 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." Myo Yan Naung Thein suffers from a neurological disease that has left him unable to walk. He was denied proper medical treatment in prison, another form of psychological torture. He was one of 7,114 prisoners released by the ruling military regime "on humanitarian grounds". Just 128 of them, like Myo Yan Naung Thein, were political prisoners - less than 2 per cent. More than 2,100 remain in detention centres, prisons and labour camps across Burma. In the same month as the amnesty, the regime arrested 39 activists, including my friend and colleague Nyi Nyi Aung (also known as Kyaw Zaw Lwin), now an American citizen. He, too, was taken to various interrogation centres, where he was kicked and beaten, deprived of food for seven days and questioned throughout the night. The underlying purpose of torture is to effectively destroy the soul of a human. It is designed to break down the identity of a strong man or woman, turning a union leader, a politician, a student leader, a journalist or a leader of an ethnic group into a non-entity with no connection to the world outside of their torture chamber. In Burma, the regime uses torture to create a climate of fear, in order to maintain its iron grip on power. Arbitrary arrest, physical and psychological torture, unfair trials, long-term imprisonment and denial of medical care in prison are all intended to crush the human spirit of pro-democracy activists. But there is another, unintended, effect of torture. For those of us who share that experience, it creates an unbreakable bond between us. I co-founded the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma) (AAPP) with my friend Ko Tate Naing nearly ten years ago. We heard each other's screams under torture. Since we founded AAPP in 2000, we have documented hundreds of accounts of torture in Burma's interrogation centres, prisons and labour camps. Even though Burmese domestic law and international law forbids torture, no officials are ever held accountable their actions. We will never turn our backs on each other, or our friends and colleagues in prison. As Myo Yan Naung Thein said after his release, "Who will keep fighting if we don't? We have to carry on." There is no doubt about it: torture is state policy in Burma. The latest accounts are further evidence of the deteriorating human rights situation in my country. Over the past two months, human rights groups have documented increased attacks against civilian populations in ethnic nationality areas; more cases of rape and sexual violence by Burmese army soldiers and many instances of forced labour. There has been renewed debate about the role of sanctions against Burma and strategies of engagement with the regime by the US and other countries. I welcome the move by Aung San Suu Kyi to contribute to the debate on sanctions with the military regime and ambassadors from the West in Burma. As a political prisoner herself, I have no doubt that she will have respect for human rights at the heart of that position. Until there are concrete improvements on human rights, sanctions cannot and must not be lifted. Torture must stop, all political prisoners must be released and human rights violations across the country must cease. The generals must not be allowed to stifle the screams from Burma's prisons. Ed, BurmaNet News