BurmaNet News, December 11, 2009

[Editor]

December 11, 2009, Issue #3858


INSIDE BURMA
AFP: American on hunger strike in Myanmar jail: lawyer
DVB: Two farmers handed 7-year sentence

ON THE BORDER
BBC News: Indian separatists 'increasingly cornered'

BUSINESS/TRADE
Indo-Asian News Service (India): India hands over BIMSTEC chair to Myanmar

REGIONAL
Miadhu News (Maldives): President reiterates his call for the release of
Aung San Suu Kyi

OPINION / OTHER
IPS: Exiled media brace for 2010 election challenge – Marwaan Macan-Markar
Mizzima News: Does Burma need another UN envoy? – Mungpi
Times of London: Burma: to go or not to go? – Martin Fletcher

PRESS RELEASE
Freedom Now: Freedom Now demands that Burma junta provide immediate access
to American citizen Nyi Nyi Aung who has been on hunger strike for last
week




____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

December 11, Agence France Presse
American on hunger strike in Myanmar jail: lawyer

Washington — A US citizen jailed in military-run Myanmar has gone on a
hunger strike and is in deteriorating health, his overseas lawyer said
Friday.

Myanmar-born Kyaw Zaw Lwin, alias Nyi Nyi Aung, stopped taking food on
December 4 to demand better conditions for political prisoners, said Beth
Schwanke, his Washington-based international counsel.

US diplomats have not been allowed to see him and the court cancelled a
hearing that had been scheduled Friday citing health reasons, she said.

"We are extremely concerned," she told AFP. "We've received reports that
his health is very seriously deteriorating, but we don't have very much
information because the US embassy has been denied access."

Dissident groups from Myanmar, earlier known as Burma, have said Nyi Nyi
Aung is a democracy activist and was hoping to see his ailing mother,
herself detained over political activities, when he was arrested on
September 3.

A court charged him with fraud and forgery related to a Myanmar identity
card and of failing to declare currency at customs.

He denies the charges, with Schwanke saying he was arrested before even
reaching customs at the Yangon airport.

Schwanke said Nyi Nyi Aung went on a hunger strike to demand equal
treatment for all political prisoners, not simply his own conditions.

"Ironically, he is receiving slightly better treatment than probably most
political prisoners because he is American. He was allowed to recently put
a blanket on his wooden plank to help his bed sores," she said.

But lawyers say he was deprived of food, sleep, medical treatment and US
consular access in his first two weeks of detention.
____________________________________

December 11, Democratic Voice of Burma
Two farmers handed 7-year sentence – Naw Noreen

Two farmers involved in a land dispute in Burma which was taken up by the
International Labour Organisation were yesterday given seven-year prison
sentences.

A relative of Nyan Myint and Thura Aung, father and son from Aunglan in
central Burma’s Magwe division, said the two were sentenced on charges of
misappropriation and damages to public property.

Their case had been taken up by the International Labour Organisation
(ILO) in Rangoon, which has a mandate to deal with land dispute cases in
Burma.

The Burmese army in 2007 confiscated farmland belonging to the two
farmers, but following intervention from the ILO, it was returned earlier
this year.

In August, however, the two were accused of cutting down a eucalyptus tree
on the land, and subsequently arrested. According to the relative, who
spoke to DVB on condition of anonymity, the trees had however already been
damaged.

He said that it was likely the sentencing stemmed from complaints the two
filed to the ILO. The ILO has acknowledged that, despite having an
agreement with the Burmese government that complainants will not be
harassed, there is a risk of retribution.

In October, 12 farmers who filed complaints to the ILO regarding land
confiscation were sentenced to up to five years with hard labour.

“The government leaders made an agreement with the ILO not to jail and
subject people to forced labour,” said the relative. “But now the lower
level authorities are framing cases against them and sending them to
prison.”

An ILO report released last month said that “there is a serious
‘disconnect’ between the desire of the central government authorities to
stop the use of forced labour and the behaviour of the local [civilian and
military] authorities”.

According to the relative, the family of Nyan Myint and Thura Aung will
not appeal the sentencing.

“This is the ILO’s job to deal with and we believe they will carry on with
what they need to do – we are not filing the appeal,” he said.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

December 11, BBC News
Indian separatists 'increasingly cornered' – Subir Bhaumik

Calcutta – Separatist rebels from north-east India, facing considerable
heat in Bangladesh, are desperate to find a new sanctuary in the
neighbourhood, officials say.

Nearly 50 of them have been arrested by Bangladesh security forces in the
last two months and quietly handed over to Indian authorities .

That includes at least four top leaders of the United Liberation Front of
Assam (Ulfa), among them the group's chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa.

Nearly 200 fighters belonging to rebel groups in Assam and Tripura have
fled the crackdown in Bangladesh and some have already surrendered.

Intelligence officials say many more guerrillas, totally demoralised, may
give up soon.

The Ulfa have maintained several bases and "safe houses" in Bangladesh
since the early 1990s, Mr Rajkhowa told Assam police during questioning.
'No surrender'

He said he was picked up by Bangladesh's Detective Branch (DB) from the
seaside resort town of Cox's Bazar on 2 December, when he was trying to
escape to Burma with his family, his bodyguard Rajah Borah and his "chief
military spokesman" Raju Barua.

"I have not surrendered, I was caught by Bangladesh police and handed over
to Indian border guards," Mr Rajkhowa told reporters when he was produced
in a court in Assam's capital, Guwahati, at the weekend.

Mr Rajkhowa disputed Indian Home Secretary GK Pillai's contention that he
had "surrendered" along with his family.

"I will never surrender and India cannot get me to start negotiations by
holding a gun to my head," the Ulfa chairman told reporters at the
Guwahati court.

Indian officials say they expect the "moderates" in the Ulfa to start
negotiations with Delhi in view of the huge pressure they are facing in
Bangladesh.

In the past, the Ulfa hardliners led by the group's military wing chief
Paresh Barua said the group would not join talks unless the issue of
Assam's sovereignty was on the agenda for negotiations.

But they seem to be softening their stand now.

"There is no split in the Ulfa leadership on this issue. It is insidious
Indian propaganda and it will not work," Mr Barua, who has fled from
Bangladesh, told the BBC over phone.

'Honeymoon over'

Split or no split, there is no denying the Ulfa - and other north-east
Indian rebel groups based in Bangladesh - is in serious trouble.

"For nearly two decades, these rebels have found shelter in Bangladesh.
They trained their new recruits at bases in Bangladesh and sent them back
to India to fight. Now the honeymoon is finally over," says EN Rammohan,
former chief of India's Border Security Force (BSF).

Mr Rammohan says that persistent denials by previous regimes in Bangladesh
about the presence of these rebels in that country has now been "exposed"
by Dhaka's firm action after Sheikh Hasina took over as prime minister
earlier this year.

During her previous tenure (1996-2001), the Bangladesh police arrested the
Ulfa general secretary Anup Chetia and two of his aides and all three were
sentenced to several years in prison.

But the crackdown that started against the north-eastern rebels two months
ago in Bangladesh has been much more comprehensive and unrelenting, Indian
officials say.

"They have just been pushed back on charges of illegal trespass into
Bangladeshi territory. That makes it easy for both sides," says a senior
Indian intelligence official who is unwilling to be identified.

India and Bangladesh don't have an extradition treaty so far - but Dhaka
seems to have got round this by adopting a "pushback" method to throw out
the north-eastern rebels.

'All Clear'
This is easily the worst knock the Ulfa has taken in the Indian
neighbourhood since Bhutan demolished their bases during a military
offensive in December 2003.

That offensive, codenamed "All Clear", led to the death of a large number
of Ulfa leaders and activists, including four of their top field
commanders.

Many others, including the Ulfa's founder Bhimkanta Buragohain, were
handed over to India.

"We cannot control the insurgency in the north-east unless we get our
neighbours to crack down on them," says security analyst Gaganjit Singh, a
former deputy chief of India's Defense Intelligence Agency.

"It is great news that Bangladesh is now doing a Bhutan on this issue."

Mr Singh said India should put pressure on the Burmese to act, because
nearly 3,000 fighters of Naga, Manipuri and Assamese separatist groups are
based in more than 20 camps in Burma's western Sagaing Division.

"Some of the toughest north-eastern guerrillas are in these bases in
Burma. If the Burmese army attacks them, they will have nowhere to go," Mr
Singh said.
Although the Burmese do sometimes take military action against them, they
have not undertaken a comprehensive military operation like the Bhutanese
"All Clear".

Some of these north-eastern rebel leaders are turning to China, trying to
exploit India's strained relations with that country in recent months.

Indian intelligence officials say the Ulfa and the Peoples' Liberation
Army (PLA) of Manipur have secured some support from China, but Beijing
has denied the charges.

____________________________________
BUSINESS/TRADE

December 11, Indo-Asian News Service (India)
India hands over BIMSTEC chair to Myanmar

Handing over the chairmanship of BIMSTEC to Myanmar, India Friday said the
seven-nation organisation is 'a bridge' linking South and Southeast Asia
with India's northeastern states and underlined the need for greater
regional economic integration.

'We see BIMSTEC as an important vehicle to promote regional cooperation
and economic integration in a range of areas,' External Affairs Minister
S.M. Krishna said in the Myanmar capital Nay Pyi Taw while handing over
the chairmanship of BIMSTEC to his Myanmarese counterpart U. Nyan Win.

'We also see BIMSTEC as a bridge linking South and South East Asia with
the North East region of our country,' he said at the 12th ministerial
meeting of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi Sectoral, Technical and
Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC).

India is pushing for greater trade and connectivity between the seven
countries comprising BIMSTEC and its northeastern states.

BIMSTEC comprises seven countries which ring the Bay of Bengal namely
India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Thailand. India
hosted the second BIMSTEC summit last year.

Underlining India's commitment to bolstering cooperation with the BIMSTEC
region, Krishna called for more collaborative efforts to reap full
dividends of intra-regional cooperation.

'We would like to see BIMSTEC develop as a vibrant organisation. For the
last three years of our chairmanship of BIMSTEC, we have been striving
towards this goal,' he said.

BIMSTEC has identified 14 areas of cooperation which include health,
energy, technology, human resource development, trade, tourism and
culture.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

December 11, Miadhu News (Maldives)
President reiterates his call for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi

Aung-San-Suu-Kyi-300President Mohamed Nasheed has reiterated his call for
the release of Burma’s Opposition Leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

In a letter sent to the President of Burma General Than Shwe on the
occasion of International Human Rights Day, the President welcomed Burma’s
Supreme Court’s indication that it might allow Aung San Suu Kyi to appeal
against the extension of her detention.

President Nasheed said, he hoped this move by the Burma’s Supreme Court
“will be a first move towards her release.”

Noting the recent contacts between the government of Burma and Aung San
Suu Kyi, and its talks with the United States, the President said these
talks will “provide an excellent platform for beginning a serious policy
of national reconciliation, political participation and democratic
reform.”

In his letter, the President stated that it was his belief that if all
parties involved were able to seize this opportunity, “it is eminently
possible for the country to complete its ambitious democratic reform
program and to hold free, fair and credible elections next year as
planned.”

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

December 11, Inter Press Service
Exiled media brace for 2010 election challenge – Marwaan Macan-Markar

Chiang Mai, Thailand – A promised election in military-ruled Burma next
year will be held in a vastly different media culture compared to the last
general election in 1990, Burmese journalists said at a regional media
forum currently underway in this northern Thai city.

That election was won convincingly by the opposition, but the junta
refused to recognise its results.

The 2010 polls in Burma will be held against the backdrop of an abundance
of media outlets run by exiled Burmese journalists that have mushroomed in
the last two decades, says Kyaw Zwa Moe, managing editor of ‘The
Irrawaddy’, a popular current affairs magazine produced by Burmese
journalists living in Thailand.

"In the run-up to the1990 (election), no publications inside the country
were free to cover elections, and there was no exiled Burmese media," he
told participants Thursday at the Mekong Media Forum, which runs here from
Dec. 9-12. "The media inside still faces danger to report independently
about the elections."

Consequently, the "exiled media has an important role to play," he told
more than 100 participants at a session on ‘Burma 2010’ during the forum.
"It has grown strong in recent years."

‘The Irrawaddy’ has thus far set up a special series under the theme
‘Election Watch’ to cover different aspects of the elections before,
during and after the vote.

Burma’s junta has said the nationwide vote is part of its agenda to create
a "disciplined, flourishing democracy."

"We need to watch every step of the elections," political activist Moe Zaw
Oo, another panelist on the session, said about exploring how the media
inside and outside the country will cover elections that will have not the
usual ways of ensuring transparency and openness of popular votes. "It
will be very tricky and complicated," given that independent media will
not be inside the country to report on the vote.

Media representing Burma’s ethnic minorities, such ‘Kachin News’ produced
by Kachin journalists exiled in Thailand, are also preparing for the vote.
"A new form of people’s groups have been set up in the Kachin area," says
Naw Din Lahpai, editor of the publication. "A brand new office of the
(pro-junta) Kachin State Progressive Party was inaugurated on November
18th."

The junta is also trying to rope in the churches in the Kachin area in
northern Burma, majority of whom are Christians. "Churches have been
gifted with rice, cooking oil and small cash donations," Naw Din said. "A
campaign based on religious organisations has been launched."

Already, the exiled media are hammering away at the uncertain and
oppressive political landscape that prevails, producing stories that ask
how free and fair the South-east Asian nation’s upcoming poll will be. The
election is only the 15th in the country’s history since it emerged from
British colonial rule.

But in truth, the military leaders of Burma, officially called Myanmar,
have still to formally announce two important laws that will make the
promised poll a reality, namely, those for the 2010 elections and the law
governing political parties that will vie for seats in the legislature.

The reasons to worry about the poll are ample. In May 2008, days after
Burma’s Irrawaddy Delta was flattened by the powerful Cyclone Nargis,
which killed close to 150,000 people and displaced some two million
others, the junta conducted a referendum riddled with fraud. The junta
hailed this plebiscite to approve the new constitution after over 90
percent of the voters endorsed the charter.

How the 1990 elections turned out – where some 15 million voters turned
out – also feed media concerns. The National League for Democracy, led by
Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, secured over three-fourths of the
seats in the national assembly, only to be denied power by the regime.

The regime’s reluctance to hand over power to a civilian authority – which
Burma has not had since the 1962 military coup – is reflected in the
constitution that, the regime said, is part of its seven-point roadmap
towards political reform and democracy.

"The constitution is totally flawed. It favours military supremacy," said
Moe Zaw Oo, who writes for the ‘Irrawaddy’. "The military has the power to
stage a coup at any time they want. They can do so using the state of
emergency, and this act is not illegal."

The regime’s attempt to retain its grip on power has also been cemented by
another constitutional provision that guarantees the military a fourth of
all the seats in the legislature through appointments – and not through
polls.

For Burma’s ethnic minorities, which account for over 40 percent of the
country’s 56 million population, a ruthless military campaign makes "the
regime’s planned elections meaningless," said Charm Tong, a leading figure
of the Shan Women’s Action Network, which has produced reports exposing
alleged war crimes committed by the Burmese military, including the
systemic use of rape as a weapon of war.

"We now have 600,000 internally displaced people inside Burma," she told
the forum, referring to the plight of the country’s ethnic minorities.
"The Shan state has over 150 battalions stationed out of Burma’s 500
battalions, which is a fourth of the military strength."

Many of the Shan political leaders have been jailed, including some who
won convincingly at the 1990 poll, added the activist from the Shan ethnic
minority that lives along Burma’s north-eastern border. "These stories
cannot be ignored ahead of the elections."
____________________________________

December 11, Mizzima News
Does Burma need another UN envoy? – Mungpi

New Delhi - With several United Nations special envoys failing to
facilitate a process of democratic change in Burma, the UN Secretary
General Ban Ki-moon should now consider handling the matter personally
instead of appointing or re-appointing envoys to represent him, a campaign
group said.

Burma Campaign UK, a group advocating democratic change in Burma, said Ban
Ki-moon must think of a different approach towards Burma and should stop
appointing another envoy to replace Ibrahim Gambari.

Last week, Ban named his special advisor and envoy Gambari as the lead
envoy of the UN-African Union (UN-AU) peace keeping force to Darfur. The
World Body leader also indicated that he would soon find a replacement for
Gambari to carry on with his good offices role in Burma.

But Mark Farmaner, Director of the Burma Campaign UK, argues that it would
not be a wise decision to find a replacement for Gambari and strongly
suggested that Ban Ki-moon should personally handle Burma with a different
approach, so that the junta can no longer continue with its dilatory
tactics.

“Experience of the past 20 years has proved that UN special envoys did not
achieve anything. It shows that the Burmese regime does not want to
respond to envoys. So, we need a higher level with a different approach to
deal with the junta,” Farmaner said.

Ban Ki-moon, instead of appointing another envoy, should handle the matter
personally and get a stronger back-up of the UN Security Council to
pressure the junta, he added.

Gambari, whose new job to lead a peace force to Darfur will be effective
from January 1, 2010, had visited Burma eight times since 2006 during his
tenure as the special envoy. While he was able to have talks with the
junta officials and detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, he failed
to facilitate a process of political dialogue between the junta and the
opposition.

During his last visit in August, he was not allowed a meeting with the
junta’s military supremo Senior General Than Shwe and pro-democracy leader
Aung San Suu Kyi refused to meet him.

The Nigerian diplomat often came under fire from critics saying he had
failed to achieve his principle objective and had been manipulated by the
Burmese junta to their liking.

Win Tin, a senior member of the Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s
National League for Democracy party, said, the junta had no intention of
making any effort to implement changes suggested by the special envoy and
had smartly manipulated him to its benefit.

“All his trips to Burma had been planned by the junta and in his later
visits he was not even allowed meetings with the top leaders of the
regime. He was used by the junta to ease international pressure,” Win Tin
told Mizzima.

In June, Ban Ki-moon paid a rare second visit to the Southeast Asian
nation to talk to the Burmese junta’s Chief Sen. Gen Than Shwe. While he
not only failed to convince Than Shwe to start a process of dialogue, he
was also refused a request to meet Aung San SUu Kyi, who at the time was
facing trial in a special court inside the notorious Insein prison.

Farmaner said Ban’s failure to convince Than Shwe and his failure to meet
Aung San Suu Kyi are classic examples that the junta does not take the UN
seriously as its “soft-soft” approach is not hurting or threatening its
stand.

“The UN needs to change its approach by mobilizing the international
community and getting a stronger backup of the Security Council because
unless the junta feels the pressure they are not going to respond,” he
added.

While the Burmese regime does not seem to take the UN seriously, Farmaner
said, it is serious about the United States, which has long imposed
sanctions on the regime, and is keen to re-establish diplomatic relations.

In September, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced that a
policy review on Burma was completed and that the US has decided to
directly engage the regime while maintaining the existing sanctions, which
are subject to change depending on the improvements in the junta’s
behaviour.

“In the US-Burma relationship, it was the regime that showed its
willingness to talk. That is because they feel the pressure of sanctions.
It also shows that the junta does respond to pressure,” Farmaner said.

But Derek Tonkin, a former British ambassador to Thailand, who had closely
monitored political developments in Burma, said sanctions had caused
unnecessary hardship for the general Burmese people, while it failed to
dent the coffers of the Generals, who rule the country.

While having no objections on sanctions that impact the military regime
and their supporters, Tonkin said, “on the evidence of the last 21 years,
none of the sanctions imposed has had any measurable material impact on
those against whom they are supposedly targeted.”

On the other hand, he said, the Burmese people generally have been
affected by specific sanctions - such as the denial of bilateral
development aid and of assistance from international financial
institutions like the IMF, ADB and World Bank.

“The West needs to accept that the economy in Burma is so debilitated, so
dysfunctional and the regime so incompetent that sanctions as a policy
tool to induce political and human rights reforms are bound to be
ineffective and indeed counterproductive, making the regime more
recalcitrant, more inward-looking and more resentful,” Tonkin added.

He added that Western sanctions would leave Burma open for other
countries, mostly in the region, to promote their own interests.

“It seems to me that the West really has no choice but to re-engage with
the countries of the region, including Burma,” Tonkin added.

But Win Tin said, while the UN special envoys to Burma have failed to
achieve any tangible results, the United Nations should not give-up but
continue its efforts to persuade the regime to implement changes.

“We are very much thankful to the UN for their continued engagement with
Burma but the UN needs to have a stronger stand on the regime and its
envoys should stand up against the junta’s manipulations,” Win Tin said.

____________________________________

December 11, Times of London
Burma: to go or not to go? – Martin Fletcher

Its brutal regime keeps this fascinating country isolated from the rest of
the world. But does staying away help?

The rising sun is burning the mist from the mountains that flank Inle Lake
as my wife and I set off from our hotel in a long, narrow wooden boat.

For an hour we glide through some of the astounding villages of bamboo
homes on spindly stilts that dot the 40 sq miles of hyacinth-strewn water.

We pass great floating beds of matted weed on which the lake-dwellers grow
cucumbers and tomatoes. We watch fishermen balancing on one leg on their
rickety wooden canoes while they use the other to paddle, leaving a hand
free to plunge their conical nets over unsuspecting fish.

Our destination is no less entrancing — a weekly market at a lakeside
village called Ywama. We arrive to find a fleet of other longboats docked
where the water ends and makeshift stalls begin. Intha tribespeople have
come from across the lake, Shan from along the shores and brilliantly
turbaned Pa-O women from the mountains — each with their own distinctive
costumes and facial features.

They trade dried fish, strips of boiled buffalo skin, rice cooked in
hollow bamboo sticks, edible red ants, fighting cocks, gruesome
marionettes and exotic fruit and vegetables that we had never seen or
heard of — durian, chayote, pomelo.

Dead batteries are used as weights for scales. Purchases are wrapped in
banana leaves. A dentist offers to fill teeth using an ancient
pedal-powered drill.

This is Burma — a visual and sensory feast. It is a country of stunning
mountains, of lush forests and of rivers and lakes that turn molten red at
sunset. It is a country of wonderfully warm and diverse people with
fabulous faces and permanent smiles, of beautiful women with ebony eyes
and lustrous skin, of mischievous and enchanting children, of gentle
shaven-headed monks in saffron robes.

It is a country aflame with frangipani and hibiscus, jacaranda and
bougainvillea, rampant wild poinsettia and startling yellow cassia. It is
a country where every meal is an adventure — usually pleasant.

It is a country in thrall to Buddhism and to superstition, where people
anxious to earn “merit” in the afterlife hasten to fill monks’ bowls with
food and leave terracotta jars of water outside their homes for
travellers.

It is a country where the formal “sights”, mostly golden temples and giant
Buddhas, are not as fascinating as the scenes of everyday life — men
ploughing fields with oxen, old ladies puffing on cheroots, women carrying
bundles of orchids down from the hills, boys with faces white from dust
carving marble Buddhas by the roadside.

Burma is untouched by galloping global homogenisation. It has few cars or
paved roads, no chain stores or shopping malls, hardly a pylon or
high-rise to desecrate the landscape. Most of it is beyond reach of the
internet or mobile phones. Foreigners are seldom cheated or hassled.

It remains an overwhelmingly agrarian society, a seemingly delightful
throwback to an earlier, innocent age. Unfortunately, it is that way
because it is governed by one of the world’s most brutal, backward and
xenophobic regimes, which raises the inevitable question of whether
tourists should go there at all.

No, said Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma’s courageous opposition leader, in the
1990s when the junta began admitting tourists because it was so desperate
for foreign currency.

Yes, with certain provisos, said every diplomat, aid worker, opposition
politician, monk and Burmese citizen that we questioned. Circumstances
have changed, they argued.

The revenue that the regime gleans from tourism is negligible compared
with the billions that it now earns from gas, drugs and other exports, and
is far outweighed by the benefits that foreigners bring to the
impoverished and isolated Burmese people: jobs, money, access to the
outside world.

They ask only that tourists do their best to patronise private — not
government — enterprises and understand that, away from the areas they
visit, savage repression continues.

Ms Suu Kyi, “The Lady”, remains under house arrest and largely
incommunicado, and whether she still favours a tourist boycott is a
subject of much speculation. But U Win Tin, 80, a co-founder of her
National League for Democracy who was recently released from 19 years in
prison, told me: “We welcome foreigners in this country if their money
doesn’t help the junta.”

It is impossible to give the regime nothing, of course. It receives taxes
from hotels, airport levies, visa and licence fees and some admission
charges. But because much of the tourist industry is in private hands it
is possible largely to bypass government-owned businesses.

We stayed at the sumptuous Governor’s Residence hotel in Rangoon, then
flew to Mandalay, where we boarded a small, exquisitely refurbished cruise
ship, The Road to Mandalay, for a magical three-day voyage down the mighty
Irrawaddy, with its vibrant river life. The ship, like the hotel, is owned
by Orient Express, directly employs 110 Burmese, buys local produce and
sponsors six schools along the river.

We disembarked at Bagan, where more than 2,000 temples, stupas and
pagodas, none less than seven centuries old, stand amid fields of peanuts,
sesame and cotton. We had hoped to survey this amazing plain in a hot air
balloon at sunrise, courtesy of another private enterprise called Balloons
Over Bagan that employs 80 Burmese and also supports local schools.
Unfortunately the weather intervened, and we hired boneshaker bikes
instead.


>From Bagan we flew to Heho on Air Bagan, which is owned by Tay Za, the

chief financier of the junta. We had to. By Burmese roads the 230-mile
journey would have taken ten hours, not 40 minutes.

But on Inle Lake we stayed at the luxurious Inle Princess Resort, which is
owned by a former NLD politician who was imprisoned for his political
activism. It, too, seeks to redress the Government’s neglect of its
people, channelling guests’ donations to six clinics and orphanages on the
lake.

If we felt guilt, it was at being so pampered while most Burmese survive
on $2 or $3 a day — at the gourmet dinners, at finding fragrant frangipani
flowers scattered on our bed at nights, at being offered cool, wet
flannels every time we ventured into the heat.

We compensated by spending liberally in umpteen little private “factories”
producing lanterns and parasols of hand-made paper, fine lacquerware,
silver ornaments, gold leaf, handwoven silk and cotton, and the greatly
prized cloth of lotus-stem.

We overtipped guides and drivers, donated generously to temples and
monasteries, bought pirated copies of George Orwell’s Burmese Days. We
also compensated for our sybaritic existence with a three-day trek into
the beautiful mountains of central Shan state.

We climbed far beyond the range of electricity or the internal combustion
engine. We followed trails of packed red earth across fields of tea and
coffee bushes, past trees weighed down with avocados, lemons and papayas,
through stands of bamboo, teak and eucalyptus.

We watched men dexterously splitting 20ft lengths of thick bamboo into
paper-thin strips for weaving the walls of houses. We found old people who
did not know their age, women washing great baskets of chives in muddy
ponds, young girls tending cows in mountain meadows, ten-year-old novice
monks solemnly chanting their scriptures.

We stayed in monasteries, ate in villagers’ spartan homes, attended a
wedding party. We were welcomed everywhere. How, we wondered, were a
people so repressed so happy?

Largely because of Ms Suu Kyi’s admonitions few Western tourists visit
Burma, and fewer still since the monks’ revolt of 2007 and Cyclone Nargis
a few months later. In two weeks we met only one other British traveller.
It is time, perhaps, to reconsider.

____________________________________
PRESS RELEASE

December 11, Freedom Now
Freedom Now demands that Burma junta provide immediate access to American
citizen Nyi Nyi Aung who has been on hunger strike for last week

Washington – Today, the Government of Burma canceled American Nyi Nyi
Aung’s trial date for unexplained “health reasons” and continues to deny
the U.S.

Embassy consular access to visit him. He has been on a hunger strike to
protest the conditions of political prisoners in Burma since Friday,
December 4. There are reports that his health is seriously deteriorating.
Under Article 36(1)(c) of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations
“consular officers shall have the right to visit a national of the sending
State who is in prison, custody or detention, to converse and correspond
with him and to arrange for his legal representation.”

Freedom Now President Jared Genser stated: “We are gravely concerned for
Mr. Aung’s health and welfare. The Burmese junta must provide the U.S.
Embassy with immediate access to Mr. Aung. And we call on the United
States government to do everything possible to persuade the junta to
provide this access.”

Nyi Nyi Aung, a well-known democracy activist, was arrested by the Burmese
authorities on September 3, 2009. He was attempting to visit his mother,
also an imprisoned democracy activist, who has cancer. Mr. Aung, who was
initially accused of national security violations, is now accused of using
a forged Burmese national identity card, despite being the holder of an
American passport. He is also accused of failing to declare currency at
customs, although he was arrested before entering customs. He is currently
on trial for these violations, which are pre-textual, and is being
detained in Burma’s notorious Insein prison.

During his first two weeks of his detention, Burmese authorities tortured
Mr. Aung.

He was deprived of food and sleep, beaten, and denied medical treatment.
Mr. Aung was also illegally deprived of his right to U.S. consular access.
He is also being denied his rights under Burmese law to a public trial and
regular access to counsel.

Contact: Beth Schwanke
+1 (202) 617-0744