BurmaNet News, March 18, 2010

[Editor]

March 18, 2010, Issue #3919

“Kyaw Zaw Lwin spent seven months in unjust confinement and we are all
relieved that his ordeal is now over.  Sadly, while he is coming home,
Burma’s junta continues to hold its grip on 2,200 political prisoners. All
are jailed for one reason -- their efforts to convince the Burmese junta
to respect basic human rights and agree to a genuine democratic process.”
– John Kerry, U.S. Senator from Massachusetts


INSIDE BURMA
New York Times: Myanmar frees jailed American
New York Times: Change comes to Myanmar, but only on the junta’s terms
AP: Myanmar opens political party registration
New Light of Myanmar: Meeting (6/2010) of Union Election Commission takes
place

BUSINESS / TRADE
Mizzima News: Burma’s garment industry struggling to survive

REGIONAL
DVB: Thailand denies Rohingya abuse

OPINION / OTHER
VOA: Burma - 2009 Human Rights Report
Irrawaddy: Party registration regulations favor wealthy – Htet Aung

PRESS RELEASE
Burma Partnership: Burma's democracy and ethnic rights movement to launch
global campaign for genuine democracy
Freedom Now!: American Nyi Nyi Aung released from prison in Burma




____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

March 18, New York Times
Myanmar frees jailed American – Thomas Fuller

Bangkok — A pro-democracy activist from Myanmar who is a naturalized
American citizen has been released from prison a month after a court
sentenced him to five years of hard labor, the United States Embassy in
Yangon said on Thursday.

The American, Mr. Nyi Nyi Aung, had been in detention since September,
when he was arrested soon after arriving at the country’s main airport in
Yangon.

Mr. Nyi Nyi Aung, who has spent the better part of the last decade
campaigning for democracy in the military-ruled country, was due to arrive
in Bangkok later on Thursday.

Family members said they believed that he had made the risky decision to
travel to Myanmar to visit his mother, Daw San San Tin, who was detained
for her involvement in September 2007 antigovernment protests. She has
thyroid cancer and is serving a five-year term in a remote prison in
Meiktila in central Myanmar.

Mr. Nyi Nyi Aung, who was born Kyaw Zaw Lin, was initially accused of
inciting unrest but was ultimately sentenced to three years for forging a
national identity card, one year for possession of undeclared foreign
currency and one year for failing to renounce his Burmese citizenship
after becoming an American citizen in 2002. At the time of sentencing, the
judge said he could serve the sentences concurrently, effectively reducing
the total jail time to 3 years.

A spokesman for the United States Embassy in Yangon, Drake Weisert, did
not provide the reason for Mr. Nyi Nyi Aung’s release but said, “We
welcome that development.”

____________________________________

March 18, New York Times
Change comes to Myanmar, but only on the junta’s terms

Pyapon, Myanmar — In the dried mud of the Irrawaddy Delta, workers are
welding together the final pieces of a natural-gas pipeline that the
country’s ruling generals say will keep the lights on in Yangon, Myanmar’s
main city, after years of debilitating blackouts.

Residents who for years were lucky to get eight hours of power a day may
soon have the luxury of refrigerators that stay cold and televisions that
stay on.

But it will not make much difference for one 64-year-old Yangon resident
on a lakeside road blockaded by the police: Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the
Nobel laureate and this country’s best-known dissident, who lives in a
blacked-out world, barred from most communication with anyone outside her
walled compound. Her telephone line was cut years ago, and she has no
computer or television, her lawyer said.

These are the dueling realities of Myanmar today. After years of deadlock
and stagnation, change is coming, but strictly on the junta’s terms.

There is guarded hope among business people and diplomats that Myanmar, or
Burma, as many people still call the country, may be gradually moving away
from years of paranoid authoritarianism and Soviet-style economic
management that has left the majority of the country’s 55 million people
in dire poverty.

A new constitution is expected to be introduced later this year, and the
junta is planning the first elections in two decades. Analysts say that
the elections are not likely to be fully competitive or fair, but that
they could move the military to decentralize some of its power.

“Burma is at a critical watershed,” said Thant Myint-U, a historian and
former United Nations official who has written widely on the country.
“We’re clearly moving towards something other than a strict army hierarchy
with just one general at the top.”

What passes for hope in Myanmar is incremental change and the prospect
that the military will gradually fade from politics — allowing this
country of vast resources, with land so fertile it once fed large parts of
the British empire, to finally participate in the economic dynamism that
surrounds it.

Signs of change abound. The military, which has been in power for close to
five decades, has issued permits for private hospitals and schools,
neither of which were officially allowed before. It has sold a raft of
state-run factories and assets to cronies in the private sector and
appears to be lifting some of the punitive restrictions on the ownership
of cars and motorcycles. The country is taking steps to revive its
troubled but potentially lucrative rice exports.

Visits to Myanmar by international economists, including teams from the
World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, used to be “dialogues of
the deaf,” one Western diplomat said. But that has changed. Joseph E.
Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize-winning economist who visited Myanmar in December,
said the ministers and military officials he met were eager for advice
about stimulating growth and promoting private enterprise.

Myanmar has seen many false dawns before, and it is always possible that
the generals will change their minds and roll back the nascent
liberalization. But at least one crucial change is inevitable in the
coming years. The reclusive leader of the junta, Senior Gen. Than Shwe, a
master at keeping his opponents off balance, is 78 years old and has no
obvious successor.

A common explanation for the change in direction is that General Than Shwe
is dismantling his system of absolute power because he does not want
another strongman to emerge who could hurt his family or threaten the
wealth he seems to have built up during nearly two decades in power. The
question of succession is a karmic one for the general, who put his
predecessor, Ne Win, under house arrest and is said to have denied him
medical treatment before his death in 2002.

Mr. Thant Myint-U, the historian and former diplomat, said the main
tensions in the country today were within the military itself, not between
the generals and Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi and her democracy movement.

“Outside the country, the situation is perceived as a simple one where the
army is trying to perpetuate its own rule,” he said. “Inside, everyone
knows that intense competition will be under way within the elite,
involving not only the military, but also retired army officers, senior
bureaucrats and a rising business class.”

Military officers are campaigning for the elections as if their careers
depended on it, announcing dozens of projects, including the plan for
24-hour electricity in Yangon, that they hope will win the affection of a
population that in many parts of the country despises them.

One crucial change has taken place in the rice industry, which has the
potential to raise the income of farmers, the backbone of the country who
make up two-thirds of the population. Myanmar was once the world’s largest
rice exporter, a title now held by neighboring Thailand.

“Give me 10 years and we’ll be back,” said Tin Maung Thann, an adviser to
a newly created rice industry association and the president of Myanmar
Egress, a nonprofit development group. “Of course we can become a big rice
exporter.”

A series of programs sponsored by foreign governments in the Irrawaddy
Delta has helped rice-growing villages rebound from the damage of a
cyclone that killed at least 130,000 people two years ago. Farmers are
being trained to use fertilizers, better rice seed and more modern farming
techniques.

The government has empowered the rice industry association with management
of the country’s rice stocks, a crucial change from the past when generals
who feared rice shortages shut down exports with the stroke of a pen,
overriding any contracts that rice traders had signed with their
customers.

The coming elections are seen as unlikely to transform Myanmar’s politics.
The media is entirely controlled by the military, and 2,100 political
activists who might otherwise take part in the elections are in jail.

The elections would be the first since 1990, when the party of Mrs. Aung
San Suu Kyi, the National League for Democracy, won a landslide victory, a
result that was ignored by the generals and recently nullified.

But Sean Turnell, an expert on Myanmar at Macquarie University in
Australia, said the elections had created a window for the economic
changes, a situation he described as similar to Indonesia’s transition
from socialist rule in the 1960s.

“I don’t see this as a coherent liberalization,” he said. “But economic
changes seem to have happened almost by accident, and people are grabbing
at what they can.”

____________________________________

March 18, Associated Press
Myanmar opens political party registration

Yangon, Myanmar – Myanmar opened the registration period Thursday for
political parties ahead of elections this year, in what the government
bills as a key step toward democracy but which critics suspect will
entrench the country's military rulers.

State radio and television announced that new and existing parties could
register at the Election Commission office in the administrative capital
of Naypyitaw. The government also published texts of new bylaws for party
registration and polling.

This year's planned elections are part of the junta's "roadmap to
democracy," but critics say the military shows little sign of
relinquishing control and note that the government has made every effort
to prevent opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from taking part in the
polls.

Suu Kyi's party has said it will decide by the end of this month whether
to take part in the elections _ the first since 1990, when the party won
overwhelmingly, but the government refused to recognize the results.

The government has not yet set an exact date for the polls. The newly
released laws set deadlines for legal actions by parties that seem to
imply the polls will be held no earlier than November.

One recently enacted electoral laws prevents Suu Kyi from running in the
elections and forces the Nobel peace laureate out of the party she helped
found because of her conviction on charges of violating her house arrest
when an American man swam uninvited to her lakeside property.

Suu Kyi is currently serving an 18-month term of house arrest and many top
members of her parties and ethnic-based parties are serving prison
sentences. She has spent 14 of the past 20 years in detention.

The new bylaws tighten electoral registration rules, with a new
1,000-person minimum for parties and higher fees for parties and
candidates.

Parties now must pay a registration fee 300,000 kyats (about $300)
compared to the 500 kyats (about $6) fee required for the most recent
previous election in 1990.

Candidates must deposit 500,000 kyats ($500), compared to 10,000 kyats
($10) before.

____________________________________

March 18, New Light of Myanmar
Meeting (6/2010) of Union Election Commission takes place

Nay Pyi Taw – The meeting (6/ 2010) of the Union Election Commission took
place at the meting hall of the UEC office here this morning.

It was attended by Chairman of the Union Election Commission U Thein Soe
and commission members. After giving an opening speech, the chairman
approved, signed and issued the Political Parties Registration Bylaws,
Pyithu Hluttaw Election Bylaws, Amyotha Hluttaw Election Bylaws and Region
Hluttaw or State Hluttaw Election Bylaws.

Next, the commission members discussed general affairs related to the
election and the chairman reviewed the discussions.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

March 18, Mizzima News
Burma’s garment industry struggling to survive – Kyaw Kha

Chiang Mai – Officials from the Myanmar Garment Manufacturers Association
said the industry, affected by the global economic downturn, is still
struggling to achieve its previous position.

Since the end of November 2008, production has fallen 30 percent and
manufacturers are struggling hard to maintain preventing a further
downturn, said U Myint Soe, Chairman of the association.

"The world (financial) crisis has hurt our garment industry since November
2008 and has affected production in February (2010), with the trend
continuing. We are trying to stabilize the situation so it doesn’t
deteriorate,” added U Myint Soe.

Burmese garment producers receive sub-contracts from international
companies and many exports go to Europe, Latin America and Asia, with
Japan the principle importer of Burmese textiles. Since 2003, the U.S.
government has imposed economic sanctions against Burma’s military regime
and banned the import of clothing products from Burma.

U Myint Soe explained labor wages for factory workers have also been
affected by the global economic crisis, with unemployment in foreign
countries resulting in a loss in demand for textiles.

"It is true that wages and production have declined since there is less
demand for clothing around the world. Clothing prices are falling and it
means less revenue for the producers," he expanded.

Nonetheless, although the industry is running slowly, according to
official figures three new garment factories have begun operations in
Rangoon during the last three months, with more than 120 garment factories
operating in Burma in total.

The main problems for garment factories in Burma is frequent electricity
shortages and extra fuel expenses that add to transaction costs and ensure
a low return, a manufacturer from Dagon Seik Kan Township told Mizzima.

Most factory workers in the garment industry are young girls recruited
from rural areas who typically earn from 45,000 to 60,000 kyats (US $45 to
$60) a month.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

March 18, Democratic Voice of Burma
Thailand denies Rohingya abuse – Francis Wade

Claims that Thailand’s navy last week pushed 93 Rohingya ‘boat people’ out
to sea where they drifted for 45 days have been flatly rejected by the
Thai government.

A statement on the Thai foreign ministry website sought to clarify claims
reportedly made by the Rohingya to Malaysian authorities who eventually
picked the boat up that Thai navy officials had treated them inhumanely.

The statement said that navy officials had “established that the people
were from Myanmar [Burma] and heading south and had no intention of
entering Thailand”.

“Hence, in accordance with the established Standard Operating Procedures
(SOPs), the RTN [Royal Thai Navy] vessels gave the people on board
humanitarian assistance, which included the provision of food, water and
fuel, and then allowed them to continue their journey.”

The boat was discovered last week drifting near to the Malaysian island of
Langkawi, near to the border with Thailand. Up to 15,000 Rohingya, a
Muslim ethnic minority from western Burma, are believed to flee
persecution in Burma and neighbouring Bangladesh each year.

The recent accusations mirror an incident in January last year when
photographs emerged of nearly 1,000 Rohingya who had washed up in boats on
Thailand’s southeastern coast being towed back out to sea, where four of
the boats sank.

Malaysian officials said they were investigating the latest Rohingya
claims and would release the findings next week.

The Thai foreign ministry statement also rebuked claims that a number of
Rohingya boats had arrived on islands close to the southern Thai resort of
Phuket around the time of the recent incident. The statement said that
“there had been no such boat arrivals”.

The Burmese government refuses to grant Rohingya legal status in the
country, citing their distinct ethnic grouping, while Bangladesh has
blocked attempts by the UN refugee agency to grant refugee status to the
estimated 378,000 who remain in the country illegally.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

March 18, Voice of America
Burma - 2009 Human Rights Report

The Report states that in 2009, the government of Burma "continued its
egregious human rights violations and abuses."

Burmese military address a protest in this file photo from 2007. The
government continues to crack down on dissent, according to the U.S.
Department of State.
"The idea of human rights begins with a fundamental commitment to the
dignity that is the birthright of every man, woman and child," said U.S.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton while introducing the annual
Human Rights Report:

"Progress in advancing human rights begins with the facts. And for the
last 34 years, the United States has produced the Country Reports on Human
Rights Practices, providing the most comprehensive record available of the
condition of human rights around the world."

The Report raised grave concerns about the human rights situation in
Burma. Burma is ruled by a military regime dominated by the majority
ethnic Burman group.  The State Peace and Development Council, which is
headed by Senior General Than Shwe [Tawn Shway], has assumed the duties of
the government, and at all levels of the government, ultimate authority
rests with military officers.  The government also controls the security
forces without civilian oversight.

The Report states that in 2009, the government of Burma "continued its
egregious human rights violations and abuses. . . . including increased
military attacks in ethnic minority regions, such as in the Karen and Shan
state."

The Human Rights Report also states that "the regime continued to abridge
the right of citizens to change their government and committed other
severe human rights abuses."

There were reports of unlawful and arbitrary killings by security forces;
of deaths of people held in government custody; of disappearances, rape
and torture. The government frequently detained civic activists without
charges.  Citizens were imprisoned for political motives, and prisoners
and detainees were held in harsh and life-threatening conditions.

In short, the government of Burma kept a tight leash on possible criticism
of, or activism against, its policies by restricting its citizens'
privacy, freedom of speech, press, assembly, association, religion, and
movement.  At the same time, it allowed violent treatment and
discrimination against women, recruitment of child soldiers,
discrimination against ethnic minorities, and trafficking in persons.  The
government took no significant actions to prosecute or punish those
responsible for human rights abuses.

"The principle that each person possesses equal moral value is a simple,
self-evident truth," said Secretary of State Clinton.  ” With the facts in
hand and the goals clear in our heads and our hearts, we recommit
ourselves to continue the hard work of making human rights a human
reality."

____________________________________

March 18, Irrawaddy
Party registration regulations favor wealthy – Htet Aung

Burma's Union Election Commission published the technical regulations for
political parties on Thursday, which favor wealthy candidates.

Overall, the new electoral laws and registration regulations create
significant obstacles to forming political parties and the encouragement
of an open, democratic system of government, according to political
analysts.

The party registration regulations stipulate that all political parties
have until April 15 to register by filing a 300,000 fee (US $300) and the
required documents.

The regulations state that parties may spend a maximum of 10 million kyat
($10,000) for each candidate running for a seat in parliament. The
expenditure can come from either the party's funds or from a candidate's
private funds.

The level of a candidate's spending represents a significant increase from
the 1990 election, in which each candidate's expenditure was limited to
70,000 kyat ($70).

Observers noted that the higher limit favors elite, well-off candidates
who could benefit by greater access to advertising and organizing meetings
with voters. One of the poorest countries in the Southeast Asia region,
Burma's average income level is about $900 per person, according to the UN
Human Development Index 2009.

Analysts say that the new Political Parties Registration Law, combined
with its registration regulations, in effect categorize political parties
as public entities, whose holdings, upon dissolution, would revert to the
state.

Article 11 of the law states that a political party can charge each member
a registration and annual fee. Article 15 allows parties to raise funds
through private donations, business donations, or it may organize a
party-owned business, as means to raise party funds.

However, if a political party is dissolved, either by the party's own
initiative or based on a ruling by the Election Commission, all party
property must be transferred to a government department or organization,
as instructed by the government.

This aspect of the law is new. When the military took state power in 1988,
the then ruling Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP) was disbanded and
the property of the BSPP, including office buildings and vehicles, were
transferred to the National Unity Party, which was based on the former
BSPP.

Likewise, either before and after the 1990 election, the majority of the
country's 236 political parties were dissolved by the junta, but their
property was not confiscated by the state.

Analysts say this aspect of the law will have a negative effect on the
country's party politics. Since the new law allows the government to
confiscate a disbanded party's property, it could discourage the formation
of political parties.

____________________________________
PRESS RELEASE

March 18, Burma Partnership
Burma's democracy and ethnic rights movement to launch global campaign for
genuine democracy

In response to the military regime's new election laws, Burma's Movement
for Democracy and Rights of Ethnic Nationalities is holding a press
conference to present their analysis of the election laws, perspectives on
the 2010 elections based on the experience of the 1990 elections, and the
position of ethnic nationalities. The Movement will also launch a global
campaign calling for genuine democracy and national reconciliation.

What: Press Conference with representatives from the Movement for
Democracy and Rights of Ethnic Nationalities

Where: Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand,Penthouse, Maneeya Center,
518/5 Ploenchit Road, Bangkok (Chitlom BTS Skytrain station)
When: Friday, 19 March 2010, at 10:00 am

Speakers:

U Thein Oo - MP-Elect, National League for Democracy, and Secretary,
Members of Parliament Union

Naw Zipporah Sein - General Secretary, Karen National Union

Ma Khin Ohmar - Foreign Affairs Secretary, Forum for Democracy in Burma,
and member of the Foreign Affairs Coordinating Team

The Movement for Democracy and Rights of Ethnic Nationalities represents
the most broad-based and multi-ethnic cooperation of political and civil
society organizations from inside and in exile working for national
reconciliation, peace, and freedom in Burma.

###

For more information, please contact:

Thwin Lin Aung - Coordinator, Foreign Affairs Coordinating Team: +66
(0)878502354

Soe Aung - Deputy Coordinator, Burma Partnership: +66 (0)818399816

Jessica Stevens - Media and Communications Officer, Burma Partnership: +66
(0)851366702

Burma Partnership is a network of organizations throughout the
Asia-Pacific region supporting the collective efforts of all peoples
working towards democracy, peace, and human rights in Burma. [1]Read More
Latest from the Blog [2]Protest in New Delhi Against the Junta's Electoral
Laws By Burma Centre Dehli

____________________________________

March 18, Freedom Now!
American Nyi Nyi Aung released from prison in Burma

The Burmese junta released prisoner of conscience Nyi Nyi Aung from prison
on Thursday, March 18, 2010; he will be arriving in the United States late
Friday afternoon.
In response to his release, Freedom Now President Jared Genser said,
“We’re thrilled that Nyi Nyi is returning to the United States and will be
reunited with his fiancé shortly. While we are pleased the junta has
released him, he never should have been imprisoned in the first place. On
this day of thanksgiving for one family, it must not be forgotten there
are 2,100 other Burmese political prisoners including National League for
Democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.”
Nyi Nyi Aung is a Burmese-born American democracy activist who was
arrested September 3, 2009, at the Rangoon airport. Nyi Nyi was convicted
on sham charges and sentenced to three years in prison and hard labor. His
trial process failed to meet Burmese and international legal standards for
a fair trial. While in prison, Nyi Nyi was repeatedly tortured, denied
consular access, and denied access to his lawyers.

Nyi Nyi’s fiancé, Wa Wa Kyaw commented: “I’d like to express my gratitude
to the State Department and especially Assistant Secretary Kurt Campbell
and U.S. Ambassador to ASEAN Scot Marciel who worked intensively to secure
Nyi Nyi’s release. U.S. Charge d’Affairs Larry Dinger and Consul Colin
Furst also worked tirelessly on his behalf in Rangoon. I am also
particularly grateful to the many Members of Congress who advocated for
Nyi Nyi’s freedom. Beginning with our own Congressman Chris Van Hollen and
House Foreign Affairs Chairman Howard Berman, other keys members
especially engaged in securing Nyi Nyi’s release included Senators Barbara
Mikulski, Richard Durbin, John Kerry, Richard Lugar, Mitch McConnell, John
McCain, and Benjamin Cardin, and Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Jim McGovern,
and Frank Wolf, among others.

Freedom Now, an advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C.,
represented Nyi Nyi Aung as his international pro bono counsel. Working
with Freedom Now, on December 17, 2009, a bipartisan group of 53 Members
of Congress sent a letter, initiated by Reps. Howard Berman and Frank
Wolf, to junta leader Than Shwe urging Nyi Nyi’s release. Freedom Now also
submitted an urgent appeal to the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture as well
as a petition to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on Nyi Nyi’s
behalf.
For further information and to access the primary documents about his case
referenced above, please see: http://www.freedom-now.org/NYINYI.php

Contact: Beth Schwanke
March 18, 2010 +1 (202) 617-0744 bschwanke at freedom-now.org