From editor at burmanet.org Mon Jan 25 15:32:28 2010 From: editor at burmanet.org (Editor) Date: Mon, 25 Jan 2010 15:32:28 -0500 (EST) Subject: BurmaNet News, January 23 - 25, 2010 Message-ID: <58610.63.173.78.131.1264451548.squirrel@webmail2.pair.com> January 23 ? 25, 2010, Issue #3882 ? Mr. Leno, Mr. O?Brien, Mr. Letterman and their ilk are the water-cooler folly and they are neither removed nor benevolent . Mr. O?Brien who began on a self-deprecating note, has turned more self-righteous in his monologues, blaming the network and Mr. Leno for taking back the show only seven months after he started. And his sense of betrayal is perhaps fanned by the followers who have held protests outside NBC headquarters at Rockefeller Center, as if the network is Myanmar and Mr. O?Brien the Daw Aung Suu Kyi of late night comedy.? ? New York Times article by Alessandra Stanley reporting on the heated competition between late-night talks shows in the U.S. (January 21) INSIDE BURMA Reuters: Myanmar minister says Suu Kyi to be freed November AP: Myanmar party plays down Suu Kyi release report Mizzima News: AAPP calls for release of poet Saw Wei Xinhua: Myanmar imposes heavy punishment upon sales of unlicensed video discs ON THE BORDER Thai News Agency: Thailand to repatriate Karen villagers who fled Myanmar army Reuters: Bangladesh, Myanmar to resolve border dispute-Dhaka BUSINESS / TRADE DPA: Myanmar to privatize all fuel stations by March, source says OPINION / OTHER Reuters: China casts nervous eye at erstwhile ally Myanmar ? Ben Blanchard Irrawaddy: Burma and national 'plagiarism' ? David I. Steinberg Guardian (UK): Junta stuck in a Burmese daze ? Andrew Ryvern Asian Tribune: Higher education to control the country ? Prof. Kanbawza Win REGIONAL Press Trust of India: India has turned blind eye to Myanmar movement, feels activist INTERVIEW Irrawaddy: Labor pains PRESS RELEASE CSW: 2000 Karen villagers forced to flee Burma army attacks Palaung Women?s Organization: Opium cultivation surging under junta's control in Burma ____________________________________ INSIDE BURMA January 25, Reuters Myanmar minister says Suu Kyi to be freed November ? Aung Hla Tun Yangon ? Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi will be freed when her house arrest ends in November, according to a government minister quoted by witnesses on Monday, but critics said that may be too late for this year's elections. Home Minister Major General Maung Oo told a January 21 meeting of local officials the 64-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner would be released in November, a month after many observers expect the country to hold its first parliamentary elections in two decades. The information could not be verified independently but three people who attended the meeting said the comment was made to an audience of several hundred people in Kyaukpadaung, a town about 565 km (350 miles) north of the former capital, Yangon. The three witnesses requested anonymity. Suu Kyi, detained for 14 of the past 20 years, was sentenced to a further 18 months of detention last August for harboring an American who swam uninvited to her lakeside home, raising questions over whether the election will be a sham. That incident took place in May 2009, just before an earlier period of house arrest was due to end. Taking into account the three months she spent in a prison guesthouse after the incident, her 18-month sentence would end in November. The planned election would be the first since 1990, when Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party scored a landslide victory that the country's junta refused to recognize. Maung Oo also said detained NLD vice-chairman Tin Oo would be released on February 13, and that the government would pursue an international-style market economy after holding "free and fair" elections, including loosening restrictions on car imports. Tin Oo, 82, a former defense minister and retired general, has been in prison or under house arrest for more than a decade. ELECTION TIMING NOT YET SET Senior NLD official Khin Maung Swe said it was crucial Suu Kyi and Tin Oo were released before the election. "The most important thing is they must be freed in good time so that they can work for national reconciliation," he said. The military junta has not set a date for the election but has promised U.S. President Barack Obama and Southeast Asian leaders the vote would be free, fair and inclusive. In recent months Suu Kyi has been allowed to meet the junta's liaison officer and foreign diplomats. The NLD has not yet said whether it would take part in the elections, portrayed by the generals as a move to a multi-party democracy but derided by opponents as a sham designed to let the army retain real power. The United States and others are reviewing policy toward the former Burma after years of sanctions and trade embargoes failed to get the junta to improve its human rights record or relax its grip on power. Obama has offered Myanmar the prospect of better ties with Washington if it pursued democratic reform and freed political prisoners, including Suu Kyi. (Writing by Jason Szep; Editing by Alan Raybould and Paul Tait) ____________________________________ January 25, Associated Press Myanmar party plays down Suu Kyi release report Yangon ? Reports that a top Myanmar leader said detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi would be released in November, when her house arrest ends, have only served to lower hopes that she might be freed ahead of this year's elections, her party said Monday. Nyan Win, a spokesman for the National League for Democracy party, said the comment purportedly made last week by Home Minister Maj. Gen. Maung Oo was "nothing new or extraordinary." "If the media reports were correct, hopes for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's earlier release under the executive order were dashed," said Nyan Win, who is also a lawyer for the 64-year-old Suu Kyi. "Daw" is a term of respect used for older women in Myanmar, also known as Burma. News reports on U.S.-government backed Radio Free Asia and elsewhere cited witnesses as saying Maung Oo in a Jan. 21 speech declared Suu Kyi would be freed in November. The reports said he spoke at a meeting of several hundred officials in Kyaukpadaung, a town about 350 miles (560 kilometers) north of Yangon. Reports also quoted Maung Oo as saying the elections would be "free and fair." Suu Kyi's party and pro-democracy activists have complained the constitution that established the polls was undemocratic and unfair. It includes provisions that bar the democracy icon from holding office and ensure the military a controlling stake in government. Suu Kyi's party has not yet decided whether to take part in the election, the date of which has not yet been set. Suu Kyi has been detained for 14 of the past 20 years. She was sentenced last August to 18 months' house arrest, with three months in detention awaiting the end of the trial counted toward the total. The National League for Democracy party swept the last elections in 1990, but the results were never honored by the military, which has ruled the country since 1962. ____________________________________ January 25, Mizzima News AAPP calls for release of poet Saw Wei ? Myint Maung New Delhi ? The Thai based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners - Burma (AAPP-B) has called for the release of poet Saw Wei at the earliest possible date, as his release was set for the 21st of this month. Poet Saw Wei was arrested on the 21st of January 2008 after his poem entitled ?February 14? which cryptically included the stanza ?Power crazy senior general Than Shwe? appeared in the Love journal. He was later charged with committing disaffection to the State and sentenced to two years imprisonment along with his judicial custody term, AAPP-B said. ?In fact, his judicial custody term must be deducted from his prison term starting from the date of his arrest. But the court counted his judicial custody starting from the date of trial commencement. So, the previous three months custody means unlawful custody. In this way he is losing his lawful rights. We call for the immediate release of poet Saw Wei,? exclaimed AAPP-B Joint-Secretary Bo Kyi. Lawyer Soe Min added, ?The Insein prison special court judge pronounced his judgment to serve his sentence along with his custodial term concurrently. His custodial period started from the 21st of January when he was arrested.? In hope of his being released, his wife Nan San San Aye visited Yemethin prison in Mandalay Division where he is being held, though authorities informed her she must return home. Rangoon-based lawyer Aung Thein said, ?The police and judicial custodial term does not start from the arrest date. They usually count the custodial period starting from the commencement of the trial. So there is a discrepancy in the custodial period resulting from a counting method. In fact, the Criminal Procedure Code clearly stipulates that the custodial period must be counted from the arrest date.? Advocate Aung Thein, who has represented many cases involving political prisoners, has since had his advocate license revoked. Nan San San Aye said that during her prison visit with her husband, she further learned that the poet is suffering from dysentery and eye disease. ____________________________________ January 25, Xinhua Myanmar imposes heavy punishment upon sales of unlicensed video discs The Myanmar authorities have imposed heavy punishment starting this year upon sales of unlicensed local and foreign VCD/DVD/EVD discs with a term of imprisonment ranging from six months to three years instead of just a cash fine previously, according to the Yangon City Development Committee Sunday. Surprise check will be carried out against video production companies, video disc selling and leasing shops as well as individual residential houses, the sources said. In the past, the authorities imposed a fine of 100,000 kyats ( 100 U.S. dollars) on such sale. Meanwhile, the authorities warned that the illegally imported VCD/DVD/EVD features may imitate wrong life style, pointing that some scenes appearing in these records are against Myanmar culture and traditions and are considered not suitable for public show. Action is also being taken against violators, who pirated video features, and VCD/DVD/EVD discs legally produced by local distributors to prevent exploitation of those in the profession. According to earlier local report, at least dozens of big and small pirated-disc-selling shops in different townships were seized last year during surprise checks with a fine of 200,000 kyats (200 dollars) each imposed on the shops. During the last few years, the Myanmar authorities occasionally seized and destroyed large amount of local and foreign uncensored, pornographic and pirated video tapes and discs valued at tens of thousands of U.S. dollars. ____________________________________ ON THE BORDER January 25, Thai News Agency Thailand to repatriate Karen villagers who fled Myanmar army Bangkok ? Thailand will repatriate more than 1,500 displaced Karen villagers from Myanmar along the Thai Myanmar border, a population which who escaped fierce fighting in Myanmar to Thai territory since June 2009, according to Lt-Gen Thanongsak Apirakyothin, the 3rd Army Area Commander. Gen Thanongsak said that the meeting of Thai security agencies and representatives of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in the northern province of Tak on January 14 agreed that more than 1,500 villagers who crossed into Thailand to escape the fighting in Myanmar since mid-2009 would be sent back to Myanmar without seeking their consent. He said there is no fighting in Myanmar, therefore, all of them would be safe when they return to their country. Gen Thanongsak added that the government had no policy to provide additional temporary shelter for these people. He said that the government would gradually send them back to Myanmar. (TNA) ____________________________________ January 25, Reuters Bangladesh, Myanmar to resolve border dispute-Dhaka Dhaka - Bangladesh and Myanmar have agreed to resolve a maritime boundary dispute that brought their forces face to face in the Bay of Bengal in 2008 after Myanmar began oil and gas exploration, a Bangladeshi official said on Saturday. "The important agreement was reached between the neighbouring countries at a recent meeting," Foreign Secretary Mohammad Mijarul Quayes told reporters. He said officials from the two countries would meet soon to demarcate the border in a way that would establish Bangladesh's rights on its off-shore gas blocks. Bangladesh sent a naval patrol to the disputed area in October 2008 after Myanmar began oil and gas exploration. Both countries also concentrated troops at strategic points along their 320-km (200-mile) border, partly demarcated by the river Naf. Myanmar withdrew its exploration teams and agreed to resolve the issue through talks. Bangladesh had referred the issue to the United Nations for arbitration under the convention on the law of the sea. (Reporting by Nizam Ahmed; Editing by Janet Lawrence) ____________________________________ BUSINESS / TRADE January 25, Deutsche Presse-Agentur Myanmar to privatize all fuel stations by March, source says Yangon ? Myanmar plans to privatize its state-owned petrol and diesel stations by end of March, according to business community source. "We have been informed by authorities that private companies are to take over all state-owned fuel stations by March 31," a prominent businessman who requested anonymity said. The military government has strictly controlled all fuel-related business including filling stations since 1962. "It was very surprising to learn the importing and selling of petrol and diesel was to be transferred suddenly to the private sector," he said. The ruling junta recently announced the privatization of more than 100 businesses and properties, but petrol stations were not included in the list. "We have just formed an association under the Union of Myanmar federation of chambers of commerce and industries to take it over from government and run this business," a businessman involved in the discussions told the German Press Agency dpa. Tay Za, a leading tycoon in Myanmar with close ties to top junta generals, will head the new association, the source said. "I think we will see more privatizations in various sectors before election," he said. There are more than 250 fuel stations nationwide, according to the official website of the Energy Ministry. ____________________________________ REGIONAL January 24, Press Trust of India India has turned blind eye to Myanmar movement, feels activist ? Wasfia Jalali Jaipur One of the many supporters of Aung Sang Suu Kyi who is waging a lonely battle for greater rights in Myanmar, activist and author Ma Thida feels that despite being the world's largest democracy, India has turned a blind eye to its eastern neighbour. As a doctor and activist, who spent months locked in a prison where she came very close to death, Ma Thida finds the "ignorance" of the Indian government and its people towards Myanmar as a sad experience. In Jaipur to attend Literature Festival, she talked about her country's expectations from India and how she feels the rich resources in Myanmar turned out to be a "bad luck" for its people. "India, especially the Indian government has turned out to be very ignorant about what's going on in Myanmar," she told PTI in an interview. "Besides the government, even the Indian media has also been ignorant, in the sense they have failed to inform their people about the situations in their immediate neighbourhood," she said. ____________________________________ OPINION / OTHER January 25, Reuters China casts nervous eye at erstwhile ally Myanmar ? Ben Blanchard Ruili, China - The giant red poster staring over China's Wanding border crossing with Myanmar proclaims that their "brotherly feelings will last forever." A few kilometers away, just outside the dusty frontier town of Ruili, a border village proudly tells its few visitors that Myanmar chickens cross over the rickety bamboo fence to lay their eggs in China. But behind the bonhomie and poems of friendship, China's relationship with its impoverished southeastern neighbor and erstwhile ally formerly known as Burma is deeply troubled. This was bought sharply into relief last August when Myanmar's military overwhelmed and disarmed the Kokang rebel group, triggering an exodus of more than 37,000 refugees into China, prompting an unusual outburst of anger from Beijing. "I wouldn't characterize them as friends, in the way Britain and America or Australia and New Zealand could be regarded as friends. It's often a tense and difficult relationship," said Ian Storey, a fellow at Singapore's Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. "It's basically a marriage of convenience. The Burmese rely on China for money and armaments, and China uses its position at the U.N. Security Council to protect Burma to some extent, in return for which China gets access to the country's natural resources, and it gets a voice in ASEAN," he added. In 1997, despite fervent U.S. and EU opposition, Myanmar joined the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, set up in 1967 as a bulwark against the spread of Communism in the region. Logic may dictate that Myanmar and the generals who have run it for the last five decades or so would give unquestioning support to China. China backed Myanmar following the bloody suppression of pro-democracy protests in then-capital Yangon, once called Rangoon, in 1988, and has continued to stand by the junta and sell them arms in the face of sweeping international sanctions. In 2006, during a visit to China's southwest Yunnan province which shares a long border with Myanmar, Myanmar's Commerce Minister Tin Naing Thein thanked Beijing for being a "good neighbor" and offering "vigorous support" after the 1988 events. Yet profound suspicion of China in Myanmar, which dates back to before independence from the British in 1948, has not changed despite Beijing's overt support in the past 20 years or so. For years, China backed the Communist Party of Burma's armed struggle against the Myanmar government. "Chinese soldiers wore Burmese Communist military uniform and they participated in actual battles against the Burmese armed forces," said Maung Zarni, a Myanmar expert at the London School of Economics' Center for the Study of Global Governance. "The current leadership is made up of people who cut their teeth in the anti-communist/anti-Beijing operations in the 1950s and 1960s. It's difficult to conceive of change of heart on behalf of the Burmese generals toward Beijing." FEAR OF UNREST China's fear is that the kind of unrest seen last August in Kokang will be repeated with any one of a number of different ethnic rebel militias, and spill into its territory again. The threat is especially acute as the generals gear up for an election sometime this year -- a ballot rights groups call a sham -- by trying to get rebel groups along the border to cooperate, by force if necessary. The problem for China is most acute in Yunnan, where the long and in places remote frontier is porous, and ethnic minorities on both sides share close blood ties. Activists say that Myanmar's army is preparing for another offensive against these rebels, including the 30,000-strong ethnic Chinese United Wa State Army (UWSA), denounced as a narcotics cartel by the United States. That worries China, not only because of the potential for more refugees, but because, simply stated, instability on the border is bad for business. "Anything that causes the border to shut we of course do not welcome," said Chinese jade trader Lin Mingqi, sitting in his shop stuffed full of jade bracelets, Buddhas and charms made from Burmese jade and overlooking Ruili's border post. "We're here to do business. We don't want to have to worry about politics." Already drugs flow easily from Myanmar into China, fuelling an AIDS epidemic in Yunnan driven by the sharing of dirty needles, as well as prostitution. Yet Myanmar is very good at hedging its bets, playing off friend and foe alike to ensure the survival of the regime. Luo Shengrong and Wang Aiping, two academics at Yunnan University, wrote in last month's Chinese journal Contemporary International Relations that the Kokang attack was deliberately designed to tell Beijing not to take relations for granted. "It was done to show the West that Myanmar's military government is adjusting its foreign policy, from just facing China to starting to have frequent contact with the United States, India and other large nations, to have a balanced foreign policy," they wrote. "(The attack) also seemed to be showing that they were reducing their reliance on China." They noted that the operation could be construed as Myanmar trying to curry favor with the United States, by showing Washington what a useful ally Myanmar could be against China, a country viewed with mistrust by many on Capitol Hill. The academics noted that as a "reward" for the Kokang operation, Washington lifted a visa ban on Myanmar officials to let Prime Minister Thein Sein address the United Nations in New York. While it is hard to pinpoint exactly what Myanmar's secretive government hoped to achieve more broadly with the Kokang move, the academics' comments are a reflection of Chinese suspicion as to what their supposed friend is up to. The neighbors have significant business ties. Bilateral trade grew more than one-quarter in 2008 to about $2.63 billion. In late October, China's CNPC started building a crude oil port in Myanmar, part of a pipeline project aimed at cutting out the long detour oil cargoes take through the congested and strategically vulnerable Malacca Strait. RIVALRY For China, any discomfort at its friendship with Myanmar may also be outweighed by another strategic consideration -- India. While relations may have improved considerably with New Delhi since the brief border war in 1962 that poisoned ties for decades, China is a strong supporter of India's traditional enemy Pakistan. "From China's perspective, having a close relationship with Burma gives it an additional pressure point on India because it has good relations with Pakistan and increasingly with Nepal and also with Bangladesh," said Singapore-based Storey. "If you were sitting in New Delhi, you may see that as a policy of encircling India with friends of China." Myanmar's wily generals realize this, and see being friends with India as an import foil to China. "If you look at the patterns of their foreign relations, they're constantly playing one off the other. If it's not China and the U.S., it's China and India. It's a very simple but effective strategy, to keep everyone coming after you," said David Mathieson, Myanmar researcher for New York-based Human Rights Watch. "You always see things balanced out. Say the Chinese come one month, and then the Indians comes the next, or a senior Burmese official goes to Delhi. It's just them being prudent, saying 'we don't have friends, we just have partners'." (Editing by Megan Goldin) ____________________________________ January 25, Irrawaddy Burma and national 'plagiarism' ? David I. Steinberg Marcel Proust, in his monumental novel ?Remembrance of Things Past,? noted that people sometimes unintentionally reproduce their attitudes toward past events when facing new trauma. He added that nations may do the same. Each is, in effect, engaged in an emotional type of ?plagiarism,? as he termed it. Rather than stealing others' ideas, they rework the attitudes they earlier formed. As people become psychologically rigid, so do nations. This is a danger, for new circumstances may make previous views or positions no longer tenable, and we may be deluding ourselves with our responsive, unconscious uniformity. Self-plagiarism is a type of consistency, and may be reassuring. But as Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote, ?A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.? Whether the United States is plagiarizing itself in Afghanistan, with remembrance of things past in Vietnam, is something I leave to others at this time. Wars are traumatic events and prompt the need for reassurance, so when critics sometimes charge that the military fights the last war, the latter may be guilty of inappropriate tactics, but more basically it may be a product of a psychological fixation on the past. Whether we might do the same in Burma is something on which debate might be useful. And whether the Burmese might also submit to this illness should equally be our concern. The United States and other nations are seeking changes in the political culture of Burma. It has made overtures to the Burmese indicating our willingness to reconsider policies under certain conditions. If there is no progress in governance in Burma as a result of our opening gambits, as indicated by our willingness to have, and to have initiated, high level dialogue and by our signing the Asean Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in July 2009, and if the previous Burmese positive indicators by at least some high-ranking military prove fruitless, then the US has mentioned the possibility of the intensification of sanctions, which already are quite severe, although not (yet) in the Cuba range. In four stages, from 1988 to 2008, the United States has cut off Burma from arms sales and training, anti-narcotics assistance, economic aid, new investment, imports, banking facilities, visas for critical members of the Burmese elite and their families, and dealing in various gems and precious stones. The military junta has complained about the sanctions, and in part blamed the Burmese opposition?more specifically Aung San Suu Kyi?for encouraging them as well as advocating a tourism and investment boycott. But sanctions have proven to have been ineffective in changing patterns of authoritarian governance and repression, and the Chinese have been the largest number of tourists and perhaps (unofficially) the largest investors. The US has called for regime change over the years, although this has recently changed. Instead, through obstinate nationalism and the assistance of its neighbors, the Burma authorities have outlasted their critics and have even a stronger grip on the country. For more than two decades, we have periodically heard from the exiled Burmese community wishful thinking that the state and regime were on the verge of collapse through inept mismanagement, and the people continue to suffer. Although the charge of incompetence is true, the power of the junta remains. Now, the US has mentioned the need for quick progress in changes, including the holding of elections this year that are ?free and fair,? terms that have not been defined and that will be individually and differently interpreted by a wide swath of observers and participants in the policy field. If these variously designated reforms fail to occur, there will be, as important administration voices say, strong consequences. These might include even more stringent sanctions. Sanctions, admittedly and by all accounts, have failed in Burma, but if the extensive series of sanctions previously imposed did not ?work??that is, bring about regime change according to the U.S. Or even regime modification as Asean has called for?then what evidence exists that additional sanctions will bring more than bitter fruit? At the same time, simple elimination of sanctions would effectively dilute chances for reform and be politically unacceptable in the United States. If the US is to avoid national plagiarism and abandon previously demonstrated ineffective means to achieve its policy goals, then the Burmese need also to reconsider their negative positions toward the well being of their own people and their inordinate suspicions toward the international community. Their goals of national unity and military domination (through a planned civilianization of military leadership) may be held hostage to their continuing erroneous positive interpretations of the efficacy of their rule, and thus prove elusive. Their xenophobic leadership has undermined the very aims they say they want. They are deluding themselves about their past as the US may delude itself about the future. Proust did not consider whether such plagiarisms might not only be a product of a single mind or nation, but might also be reinforced by the interactions of more than one actor, perhaps intensifying the problems and making them less soluble. We might do well to note the danger. Both Proust and Emerson may well have been right. David I. Steinberg is Distinguished Professor of Asian Studies in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. His latest book is ?Burma/Myanmar: What Everyone Needs to Know? (Oxford University Press). ____________________________________ January 24, Guardian (UK) Junta stuck in a Burmese daze ? Andrew Ryvern Although Burma's leader has pledged to hold the country's first elections since 1990, there still seems little hope of democracy. With imagination and willpower, ordinary Burmese have managed to survive an oppressive military government that openly condemns them to poverty and isolation. Yangon, Burma's commercial hub and until recently its capital, is a case in point. With its boulevards lined with fading colonial buildings and streets filled with vintage automobiles, the city once known as Rangoon looks like it belongs in the previous century. But these are not the only things out of date. Yangon's street hawkers sell bootlegged copies of Burmese Days, Orwell's stinging indictment of British rule, along with a wide range of international newspapers and magazines that have somehow escaped the government censors. But just as the military government has ensured the country remains several decades behind the rest of Asia, the copies tend to be several days or months old. Thanks to a thriving black market, everything from foreign currencies to Scotch whisky and the latest English and Hindi films are available. It is one of several reminders that ordinary Burmese are steadfastly connected to the outside world in every way they can. The military junta has its international links too. "Burma could not function without Chinese support," says one longtime Burmese activist who requested anonymity. Like Asean, the emerging superpower has generally been happy to avoid criticising its fledgling neighbour. China is busy transforming Burma into a satellite state. But China is not alone. Although Burma has been placed under a raft of international sanctions, multinationals such as Unocol and the Russian Aircraft Corporation (producers of the MiG jet fighter) are happy to do business with the junta. Tourism is another source of foreign investment and there are few signs of the junta in cities frequented by foreigners, although state security covertly surveils the local population and tourists lest they stray off the beaten track. In the garrison town of Kalaw, for example, one local told me of his surprise on discovering that many of the regular patrons at his favourite noodle shop were young officers at the local military college. Although they looked and dressed like every other civilian, he explained, on graduation day they all appeared in full army dress. Despite attempts to mask the regime, it doesn't take much to notice the vast inequality that condemns most to squalor while the generals and favoured businessmen hold court in imposing if garish mansions that line the wealthy parts of Burma's major cities. Since 1962 the military junta has stifled an ethnically diverse and broadly popular democracy movement popularised internationally by Aung Sung Suu Kyi, daughter of modern Burma's founding father, Aung Sung. When in 2007 protests against fuel price hikes transformed into a street-level pro-democracy movement, riot police fired live rounds into the largely peaceful crowds and imprisoned thousands including hundreds of leading monks. Yet even with this history, observers were still stunned when the regime refused to allow international assistance to the millions left destitute by Cyclone Nargis in 2008. Even private citizens were punished for trying to help. Zarganar, one of Burma's most famous actors and comedians, was sentenced to 58 years jail, later reduced to 35 years, for criticising the government's inaction in the face of the disaster. Many locals believe Zarganar's real crime was embarrassing the generals with his philanthropy ? he personally paid for humanitarian aid to be bused to cyclone-affected areas of the Burmese coast. Many Burmese continue to risk imprisonment for similar acts of benevolence. In the remote hills of central Burma, I watched in awe as local businessmen and farmers, themselves struggling to make ends meet, quietly delivered medicines, toothbrushes and blankets to the elderly and infirm in villages far from their own homes. People may remain cautious of speaking about the political situation, even in the most remote areas. But beneath the surface there are deep frustrations towards continued economic stagnation, cronyism and the lack of freedom. In response to these frustrations, the junta has promised parliamentary elections later this year. But dates have yet to be set and it is unclear whether several of the largest independent political parties like Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy will contest them. Judging from past experience, however, the proposed elections are likely to be a whitewash. The junta refused to honour the NLD's landslide election victory in 1990 and a new constitution passed in 2008 gives the military 25% of all seats in parliament regardless of any vote. It all may be theatre, but as the nightmare continues ordinary Burmese still find ways to slip the cage. ? Andrew Ryvern is the pen-name of a journalist who recently visited Burma. ____________________________________ January 21, Asian Tribune Higher education to control the country ? Prof. Kanbawza Win Sanskrit says that: 'Education leads to liberation' ? Liberation from ignorance which shrouds the mind, Liberation from superstitions, which paralyze efforts, liberation from prejudice, which blind the vision of truth?. However successive military regime believes that universities are the birth place of dissent against autocratic rule. And so since the military coup in 1962, rather than developing a quality education system as a means of building Burma's human resource base, the Burmese generals have sought to subvert education in Burma for their own purpose - to remain in power at any cost. It is not a surprising to witness that people in Burma are being blinded by the various military administrations, even though the ?thirst for vision of truth' is very much apparent. The current regime has bonded the rights to education as a hostage to be always held in captivity and so the international community became a mere spectator pining in sorrow for the Burmese people?s hope. Since the 7th July incident in 1962, where for the first time the Tatmadaw (Burmese Army) shoot into the crowds of demonstrating students killing 137 students instantly and since then the Universities in Burma has been closed off and on until 1988 revolution when all the university education was closed down for nearly a decade. After reopening, the regime pursued a policy of separating and isolating students so that they could to contact each other. Iron fences have been built around universities in and around Burma and campuses were close again and again at the slightest sign of any trouble. The prolonged closure of schools has affected the future of almost all the young people of Burma and only those with political influence, such as the children of the generals, and those rich enough enjoy uninterrupted and quality education. The regime, in addition, has lowered the academic standards by reducing school terms; four year degree courses have been lessened to a year or a year and a half hence the students are unable to study out of the formal education system. The closing down of universities for seven years in the past decade resulted in most students not able to complete their undergraduate courses. Many secondary schools also suffer from poor funding and shortages of materials. The woes of teachers are no less. They can earn on an average less than US$ 30 a month. Many earn ten times their salary through private tutoring which again lead to the infiltration of mass unfair means during examinations and in academic terms or partiality. The teachers who cannot bear such conditions leave the country; those teachers who do not get much privilege or are patriotic try their best against the military regime and serve the country within the constraints. Ethnic nationalities teachers are the ones to suffer gross human rights violation. The teaching or research of any ethnic language is not permitted in any secondary school or tertiary institutes. Critics of the system allege that the policy of teaching only Burmese and no other languages in government schools is simply a means of imposing discipline, control and Burmanization. The Tatmadaw during its attempts to unify the country by force enforce a law that schools near areas of conflict that teach in ethnic languages are the first to be "dismantled" and many children are thus denied education in their own language and culture. Two other groups in Burma that have historically been denied educational opportunities have been children of Chinese and Indian ancestry. Under a strict 1982 Citizenship Law, people of Chinese and Indian ancestry must prove that their ancestors have resided in Burma since 1824 during the first British annexation, a requirement which is almost impossible to fulfill. As university entrance is only open to Burmese nationals, this bars many from studying for a university degree despite having lived all their lives in Burma. Another factor that shows there is no freedom of choice in education is that those who finished high school cannot choose any subject of their interest. The condition is the students have to take the subjects according to their matriculation marks whether they like it or not. Students have no rights to speak, or discuss matters that will affect their educational life. The example is the repeated changes of curriculum and the phase of trial education. The students have no right to criticize, to complain, to question. Sometimes they don't even have the right to know that such things are taking place. In most of the affiliated schools, villagers themselves have to build the schools and hire teachers at their own expense. In some places there is only one primary school for five villages. There are no schools in the border areas and the only choice of the poor is the Monastic schools which only give primary education. In these schools not to mention teaching, even stationery is not enough and so the students have to use slate and slate pencils. If so one can ask of where have the educational aids given by the international organizations gone? This aid goes to Military Medical University, and the Military Engineering University. These military universities are not closed as ordinary universities. The aid is abundant in military universities. Modern technology is provided in these universities. When internationally well-known scholars come to visit Burma, they are allowed to give lectures only at these universities. This is but one way of controlling the country in the coming future. While in Burma the educational aid's given by international organizations goes to military schools and universities. The annual budget allocated by the government was low; only about 2 % is spent per year on education. A closer look at different aspects of the current state of Burma?s military governance and civil military relations indicates that the generals do not underestimate the potential for political processes to develop by their recent actions. The Tatmadaw has established its identity as ?ber-nationalist, superior institution solely capable to safeguard, build and form state and nation. The National Defence College publication from 2005 reveals that the officers are expected to become knowledgeable in economic and other matters to be able to fulfill their extended political and military tasks in building a strong military force and a wealthy and technologically developed nation. It is evident that Burma?s military defines its professionalism within the notion of ?new professionalism? and thus as a military with extended competencies and skills that go far beyond the management of violence. As self-assigned state and nation-builder who has to run state and economy, the military developed an expanded concept of its professional role and accordingly tried to equip its officers with a variety of expertise in political, economic, and social matters. The educational institutions of the military have enormously expanded thus indicating an attempt to extend further the skills and expertise of the officer corps in order to be able t rule the country in perpetuity. While the national education system suffers chronically from lack of funds, the military has established well-funded and exclusive higher education institutions. In Maymyo, the regime has built several schools of higher education to cultivate its academic offspring. Cadets enter with full pay into the Defence Services Medical Academy, Defence Services Technological Academy, Technological College, and Defence Services Institute of Nursing and Paramedical Sciences to become engineers, technicians, economic experts, medical doctors, male nurses, pharmacologists, and the like. The graduates of these institutions join the ranks as something we could call ?hybrid professionals.? It is remarkable that these officers are not only military professionals but also highly specialized in civilian professions, thus taking ?new professionalism? to another level. It seems like another distinct step of the military class to become independent from civilians and civilian experts and foster its power position in a future ?military control Burma.? In 2000, the Junta laid down a 30-year education plan focusing on improvements in the basic education sector but the failure to reopen the universities continues as does the increasing number of jobless graduates and mass migration to foreign countries for job opportunities. The misplacement of job seekers, show that the education system cannot guarantee job opportunities. The military Junta highlights the number of universities and schools rather than the quality of education given. In fact, most universities in Burma lack teaching aids, laboratory materials and human resources. These days there is still no significant development in education and the dropout rate is still high. The elimination of an education system that supports political monism is still very much there. Democracy and freedom is a universal human aspiration. Democracy evolves according to the needs and traditions of diverse political cultures and education is the basic of democracy for democracy survived best in the educated people. Democracy & Education is a partnership that can be traced to the heart of education. Education provides especially students with experiences through which they can develop democratic attitudes and values. Only by living them can students develop the democratic ideals of equality, liberty and community. The concept of Democracy, which we value in our classrooms and later in our lives is encouraged by providing information, sharing experiences and reviewing resources is absent in Burma. In fact all educators share a larger purpose - to foster democracy. The regime-controlled education system has resulted in sub-standard education, critical lack of teaching facilities, unskilled teachers, and lack of job opportunities after graduation, corruption and bribery. The vastly deteriorating economic situation also forces students to leave schools even when they are functioning. Given the high drop-out rate of children in primary school, fewer students continue their education at middle and high school levels. Till now the military junta has not been able to solve the basic problems of students. They are constantly using closure of universities as a weapon to stop students' demonstrations for their rights. To immediately reopen all the schools and universities in the country unconditionally and at the same time maintain a free and unbiased educational program all over Burma still remains a dream for the people of the 'Lost Hostage'. ____________________________________ INTERVIEW January 25, Irrawaddy Labor pains Finnish-born Kari Tapiola is the executive director of the International Labour Organization (ILO) and has been with the Geneva-based group since 1996. Last week, he paid a visit to Burma's administrative capital Naypyidaw to renew a one-year agreement which allows the United Nations to monitor complaints of forced labor. During his stay in Burma, he discussed with Burmese Labor Minister Aung Kyi and other officials the issues of freedom of association and the rights of workers to organize freely. He visited locations where incidents of forced labor had been reported and met with family members of individuals imprisoned for reporting cases of forced labor to the ILO. Kari Tapiola Question: What were the main topics of discussion between ILO officers and Labor Minister Aung Kyi? Did you reach any new agreements with the Burmese government? Answer: The main topics were the functioning of the mechanism of complaints on forced labor and awareness-raising activities. We also had specific discussions on preventing the recruitment of minors into the army as well as on freedom of association. We signed an extension of the trial period of the Supplementary Understanding, which in February 2007 established the complaints mechanism operated by the ILO liaison officer. This was the third extension, again for one year??from now until 2011??and is in unchanged form. Q. What is the latest situation regarding forced labor in Burma? Could you also comment about underage recruitment in the army? A. The use of forced labor remains a problem throughout the country. There are no figures available and currently there is no way of measuring it. Awareness of the need to abolish forced labor has increased among civilian authorities. However, we cannot say the same about the military. We have had complaints involving both civilian and military authorities. The military also runs large-scale business activities. The forced recruitment of children into the military is a problem which has been recognized at a high level. We met with the authoritative committee on the prevention of underage recruitment, and we discussed concrete measures such as age verification, discharge procedures and punishment of perpetrators. An increasing number of the complaints that we receive are on under-age recruitment which by definition is forced labor. In the first two years of the mechanism (2007-08), altogether 42 children were released within an average of 145 days. In 2009, the total was 30 children released in an average of 106 days. The number of these cases has increased and the time to find a resolution has shortened. Last week, while I was in the country, three new cases of under-age recruitment were received. The government has in practice reacted relatively rapidly and with positive action. Other forced labor cases are more complicated. Q. Did the number of complaints from the public increase during the past year? To what extent is the ILO helping victims of forced labor in Burma? A. The overall number of complaints has increased. They are mainly centered on under-age recruitment. There have been less complaints on other forms of forced labor, and I believe that this is because there have been arrests and imprisonment of complainants and their facilitators??people who have acted on their behalf. These events are widely known and obviously discourage the lodging of complaints. Q. Did you call for the release of victims of forced labor who sent complaints to the ILO office in Rangoon? And how did the government respond to discussions on the ?right to free association?? A. As on all earlier occasions, we called for the release of all those who are in prison who have wanted to use the complaints mechanism and be in touch with the ILO. These cases are very serious. As the Governing Body of the ILO has pointed out, solving these cases is fundamental to the operation of the complaints mechanism. We had a discussion on the concepts and principles of freedom of association and the rights of workers to organize freely. The exchange was active. It involved several ministries, the Attorney-General's office and the Supreme Court. There are fundamental issues, not least of which is the complete absence of legally functioning workers' organizations. Q. Are you satisfied with the government's collaboration with the ILO office in Rangoon? Do you see the government becoming more cooperative with the ILO office? A. We have a good working relationship with Minister U Aung Kyi, the Labor Ministry and the Director-General level representatives of other ministries who are in the Working Group which follows up the complaints from the government's side. Cooperation has generally improved, but we are still not reaching all the levels needed for a sustained abolition of forced labor. I certainly hope that the cooperation will increase. The reasons for forced labor are complex and call for a broad engagement by, and joint efforts between, various groups, both civilian and military. Q. What are the ILO's plans for 2010 in improving labor conditions in Burma? A. It is to be remembered that as things are today, the ILO's mandate is to assist in the abolition of forced labor. The aim was set through the recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry in 1998 and the related decisions by the ILO since then. Our plans for 2010 are to try to further secure that the complaints mechanism is fully operational and its rules are fully respected. If there is to be a significant decline in forced labor, more awareness and education are needed. The [Burmese] government has now agreed to the production of a simply worded brochure which can be used as a tool in this process. Of course we will follow the political situation and respond positively to developments. ____________________________________ PRESS RELEASE January 25, Christian Solidarity Worldwide 2000 Karen villagers forced to flee Burma army attacks More than 2000 Karen villagers have been forced to flee their homes in the past week following attacks by the Burma Army, according to the Free Burma Rangers (FBR), a relief organization working in the conflict zones of eastern Burma. At least four villagers have been shot and one body has been found decapitated. FBR reports say these recent attacks began when two villagers were shot in Keh Der village on 17 January in Ler Doh Township. Ten houses were burned down causing many villagers to flee for their lives. On 18 January, more villagers were shot at by Burma Army troops in Hti Aw Top, Mon Township. Two women and one man on their way to sell goods were taken captive by patrolling troops and tied up. The following day, Burma Army soldiers from Naw Soe camp shot at three villagers from Kaw Htoo Toe while they were harvesting bamboo. One tried to help his badly wounded co-worker, but was chased and shot at again. A decapitated body has since been found by relief workers. Mervyn Thomas, CSW?s Chief Executive, said: ?These latest attacks are yet another example of the military regime?s war crimes and crimes against humanity. With the regime?s sham elections planned in Burma this year, it is now more vital than ever to highlight the plight of the Burmese people, especially the oppressed ethnic nationalities. It is now high time for the international community to impose an immediate universal arms embargo, and the UN to establish a commission of inquiry to investigate Burma?s crimes against humanity, without further delay?. For further information or to arrange interviews please contact Theresa Malinowska, Press Officer at Christian Solidarity Worldwide on +44 (0) 20 8329 0045 / +44 (0)78 2332 9663, email theresamalinowska at csw.org.uk or visit www.csw.org.uk. CSW is a human rights organisation which specialises in religious freedom, works on behalf of those persecuted for their Christian beliefs and promotes religious liberty for all. Notes to Editors: 1. For a copy of the Free Burma Rangers report, please contact CSW?s press office on 0208 329 0045. ____________________________________ January 25, Palaung Women?s Organization Opium cultivation surging under junta's control in Burma A new report released today by Palaung researchers reveal that opium cultivation in Burma's northern Shan State has been increasing rapidly over the past three years in areas under the control of the ruling military government. Poisoned Hills by the Palaung Women's Organization documents that areas under opium cultivation increased up to five-fold in Mantong and Namkham townships between 2006 and 2009 to almost 4,500 hectares. This is far higher than estimates in the annual opium surveys of the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime. Local authorities, army battalions and pro-government militia are profiting from "taxation" of opium farmers. Official "anti-drug teams", instead of eradicating poppy fields, are extorting large sums from local farmers and leaving the crop intact. The report documents that bribes totaling at least 37 million kyat (US$37,000) were collected in Mantong Township during the 2007-8 season. These areas were under the control of the resistance forces of the Palaung State Liberation Army (PSLA) which had a ceasefire with the regime until it was forced to surrender in 2005. Since then the regime has expanded its forces and pro-government militia to maintain control. "Today more of the regime's troops and militias are everywhere. For us this has meant more drugs and more addiction" says Lway Nway Hnoung, principal researcher of the report. Community assessments found addiction rates soaring in these areas. In one village surveyed in Mantong Township, 85% of males over age 15 were addicted to either opium or heroin. "In our area, if we don't marry a drug addict, we have no one to get married with because everyone is a drug addict. The only men who aren't using drugs are the monks who stay in the monastery" said one woman interviewed for the report. The report emphasizes that a negotiated resolution to the political issues at the root of Burma's civil war and political reform are needed to address the drug issue. "As long as this regime remains in power, drugs will continue to poison people in Burma and the region" said Lway Nway Hnoung. The full report can be viewed on: www.womenofburma.org and www.palaungland.org Contacts: Lway Nway Hnoung- 66-08-21648115 Lway Aye Nang -66-08-01159598 Lway Moe Kham -66-08-33302304