BurmaNet News, April 2, 2010

[Editor]

April 2, 2010, Issue #3931


INSIDE BURMA
Mizzima News: Chairman of Burma’s Election Commission on EU blacklist
DVB: Elections ‘may hinder’ aid to Burma

ON THE BORDER
New Light of Myanmar: Border guard forces formed in Shan State (East)

BUSINESS / TRADE
Xinhua via COMTEX: Myanmar launches online banking services

ASEAN
AFP: Dam debate looms large over Mekong summit

REGIONAL
Bangkok Post: Kasit: Open Burma poll

OPINION / OTHER
The Independent (UK): Why Burma's dictatorship is desperately hunting for
a white elephant - Phoebe Kennedy
Mother Jones: Five reasons why Burma's elections are bogus – Mac McClelland




____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

April 2, Mizzima News
Chairman of Burma’s Election Commission on EU blacklist

Chiang Mai – Deputy Supreme Court Judge Thein Soe, the newly appointed
Chairman of Burma's Election Commission is on the EU’s blacklist of
sanctions.  The list, which targets key members of Burma’s military regime
also includes Dr. Tin Aung Aye, a fellow Supreme Court Judge, and also a
member of the EC.

Judges Thein Soe, Dr. Tin Aung Aye and other members on the blacklist
including notorious junta crony Tay Zaw, are banned from traveling to the
European Union.  They are also subject to a freeze on any financial assets
they may have in Europe.  As such they cannot undertake financial
transactions with European based financial institutions.

The two judges  and other senior members of the Burmese regime’s judiciary
were added to the EU's sanctions list following the outcome of Aung San
Suu Kyi's August 2009 trial in which she was convicted of flouting the
terms of her house arrest after an uninvited American man swam to her
home.

According to the EU Council, members of the Burmese judiciary were
targeted because of the “gravity of the violation of the fundamental
rights of Aung San Suu Kyi. The Council considers it appropriate to
include the members of the judiciary responsible for the verdict in the
list of persons and entities subject to a travel ban and to an asset
freeze".

Before becoming a judge Thein Soe was in Burma's armed forces as a Major
General and was a military Judge Advocate General.  In 2003 he was
appointed to Burma's National Convention led by former Prime Minister Khin
Nyunt.  In October 2007 Dr. Tin Aung Aye was appointed to the commission
for drafting the State Constitution.  According to the regime’s state
constitution committee announcement, Dr. Tin Aung Aye received both his
master’s and doctorate of law in Germany.
____________________________________

April 2, Democratic Voice of Burma
Elections ‘may hinder’ aid to Burma – Francis Wade

Concerns have arisen over the possibility that overseas aid flows into
Burma may be increasingly restricted this year as the junta looks to limit
the number of foreigners in the country in the run-up to elections.

Although much of the international community has quietly voiced a desire
to increase aid to Burma, currently one of the lowest recipients of aid in
Southeast Asia as a result of sanctions, this may not be altogether
welcomed by the junta.

“We know that visas in the past couple of months have been difficult to
obtain for aid workers and we expect more of this in the next couple of
months,” Benjamin Zawacki, Burma researcher at Amnesty International, told
DVB.

He added that it may not be a “sinister” politicisation of aid by the
junta but rather an unwillingness “to have foreigners in the country at
the time of the elections”.

If the fears become reality, it would mirror the aftermath of cyclone
Nargis in May 2008 when the government, afraid of the scale of the
disaster reaching an international audience, initially barred the majority
of journalists and aid workers from entering the stricken Irrawaddy delta,
likely contributing to the eventual 140,000 death toll.

And despite the country still reeling from its worst natural disaster in
recorded history, the government in the weeks following Nargis rushed
through a constitutional referendum which set the ball rolling for the
elections this year.

“That was a very stark example of what the government is capable of in
terms of prioritising its own interests over the interests of the people,”
said Zawacki.

But, according to James East, regional communications advisor at World
Vision aid group, which has some 700 staff working inside Burma, the
elections could in fact open the country’s humanitarian corridor.

“I think the international community is seeking for ways to engage, and
yes there may be issues along the way, but the sense from the diplomatic
community is that the electoral process may lead to an opportunity for
increased engagement,” he said.

Analysts have said that, despite the results of the elections likely being
a foregone conclusion, they should be seen as an acknowledgement by
government that it needs a semblance of legitimacy on the international
stage, something it has previously disregarded.

Moreover, the junta has already made tentative steps towards opening up to
the international community, whether purely cosmetic or not, with several
high-profile visits by US politicians in the past six months.

But, according to East, there is an issue among Western governments of
balancing the desire to get aid into the country and maintaining tight
sanctions on the military rulers.

“The sanctions movement has been very strong, and governments are worried
about upsetting the pro-sanctions group,” he said, adding however that
there has been an opinion shift regarding sanctions, largely due to a new
understanding of the realities in Asia where “public confrontation is not
as effective as relationship building”.

Zawacki said however that Burma’s political crisis should have no bearing
on the amount of aid given to the country.

“These two issues should not be mixed; they have been mixed by the
[Burmese] government itself but that’s not an issue that the international
community should respond to in a tit-for-tat way.”

He added that there is “no justification for holding the majority of the
population hostage to political concerns when humanitarian imperatives
dictate that aid must get through”.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

April 2, New Light of Myanmar
Border guard forces formed in Shan State (East)

Nay Pyi Taw – Ceremonies to form border guard forces were held on a grand
scale in Pungpahkyem in Mongton Township, and Mongyu in Mongyawng
Township, Shan State (East), on 30 March.

Among some 1200 attendees were Lt-Gen Ye Myint of the Ministry of Defence,
Chairman of Shan State (East) Peace and Development Council Commander of
Triangle Region Command Maj-Gen Kyaw Phyo, Director of the People's
Militia and Frontier Forces Maj-Gen Maung Maung Ohn, and senior military
officers from the Ministry of Defence and local stations.

At the ceremony held in Pungpahkyem on 30 March morning, the State Flag
was hoisted.

Members of the border guard force took the oaths of a serviceman, received
the rank insignia of the Tatmadaw and were assigned duties. The commander
and the director of the People's Militia and Frontier Forces delivered
speeches.

Lt-Gen Ye Myint formally unveiled the commemorative stone plaque. New
members of border guard force enjoyed themselves singing and having
traditional dances with local people.

In the afternoon, a luncheon was hosted in honour of the new members.

Commander Maj- Gen Kyaw Phyo and Maj- Gen Maung Maung Ohn addressed the
ceremony to form a border guard force held in Mongyu, in the afternoon
Lt-Gen Ye Myint formally unveiled the stone plaque.

They are happy to be troops of the border guard forces. National race
leaders and local people welcomed formation of border guard forces
designed for stability, community peace, security, and perpetual peace of
border areas. - MNA

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

April 2, Xinhua via COMTEX
Myanmar launches online banking services

Yangon -- The state-owned Myanmar Economic Bank (MEB) started launching a
quick-cash online banking services Friday to facilitate customers in
exchanging cash with the use of smart card, sources with the bank said.

Working with the state-run Myanma Posts and Telecommunications, branches
of the MEB in Yangon and Mandalay will provide full time service using
ADSL, IPStar systems and fiber optics cables to go online, the sources
said.

MEB said it has experienced online banking system since May 2007 in
collecting insurance premium from those leaving for foreign countries at
Internal Revenue Department in Yangon and in collecting deposit for
submitting passport at Passport Office in Yangon, and in providing one
stop service at one of the Yangon branch.

Test-run of such online banking services has proved workable with smart
card, the sources added.

Meanwhile, Myanmar has also introduced a banking network system in some
six banks in the country to interlink state and private banks to
facilitate traders for banking transactions, according to the Bankers
Association.

The system, being practiced with Yoma bank, Myanmar Citizens Bank, Tun
Foundation Bank, Myanmar Foreign Trade Bank, Myawaddy Bank and Myanmar
Industrial Development Bank, is carried out by local information
technology companies of MIT and Global Net.

There are four state banks and 15 private banks in Myanmar all governed by
the government's Central Bank.

____________________________________
ASEAN

April 2, Agence France Presse
Dam debate looms large over Mekong summit – Rachel O'Brien

Bangkok – Leaders of Southeast Asian nations straddling the shrinking
lower Mekong River are set to lean on China at landmark talks as
controversy builds over the cause of the waterway's lowest levels in
decades.

Beijing's Vice Foreign Minister Song Tao will join the premiers of
Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam in the Thai resort town of Hua Hin to
discuss management of the vast river, on which more than 60 million people
depend.

Myanmar will also participate as a dialogue partner at the top-level
talks, which will kick off late Sunday and run through Monday.

A crippling drought in the region and the much-debated role of hydropower
dams are due to dominate the summit of the inter-governmental Mekong River
Commission (MRC) -- the first in its 15-year history.

The body warned Friday that the health of the Mekong Basin and the river's
eco-systems could be threatened by proposed dams and expanding
populations.

"There is a strong link between water quality and the impact of human
activity on eco-systems," MRC advisor Hanne Bach said in a statement.

"Over the past five years, significant changes have taken place in water
related resources and this is likely to continue, which may put
livelihoods under threat," she added.

China is expected to staunchly defend its own dams, which activists
downstream blame for water shortages, after the Mekong shrivelled to its
lowest level in 50 years in Laos and Thailand's north.

Nations in the lower Mekong basin are likely to press China for
information on the river as well as financial help, said Anond Snidvongs,
director of the Southeast Asia START Regional Centre, which researches
environmental change.

And "behind closed doors there will be strong debate," he told AFP.

China -- itself suffering the worst drought in a century in its southwest,
with more than 24 million people short of drinking water -- says the
reason for water shortages is unusually low rainfall rather than man-made
infrastructure.

It says the dams, built to meet soaring demand for water and
hydro-generated electricity, have been effective in releasing water during
dry seasons and preventing flooding in rainy months.

"China will never do things that harm the interests of (lower Mekong)
countries," said Yao Wen, a spokesman at the Chinese Embassy in Bangkok.

The crisis has grounded cargo and tour boats on the so-called "mighty
Mekong" and alarmed communities along what is the world's largest inland
fishery.

The situation "could be a taste of things to come in the basin if climate
change predictions become a reality," said MRC spokesman Damian Kean.

The chief of the MRC's secretariat, Jeremy Bird, last week hailed
Beijing's agreement to share water level data from two dams during this
dry season, saying it "shows that China is willing to engage with lower
basin countries".

Yet questions remain over the impact of the eight planned or existing dams
on the mainstream river in China.

Vice Minister of Water Resources Liu Ning said Wednesday more were needed
to guarantee water and food security, while 12 dams in lower Mekong
countries have also been proposed.

Campaigners also fear that the settling of political scores could block
co-operation over the Mekong -- especially the current animosity between
Cambodian premier Hun Sen and his Thai counterpart Abhisit Vejjajiva.

The summit marks Hun Sen's first visit to Thailand since the two countries
became embroiled in a row late last year over Cambodia's appointment of
ousted Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra as an economics adviser.

"That's what worries me quite a lot, that the debate will be more
political, and not even related to water," said Anond.

Thailand has invoked a tough security law and will deploy more than 8,000
troops in Hua Hin to ensure protesters do not disrupt the summit, in light
of mass anti-government "Red Shirt" rallies in Bangkok since mid-March.

A year ago, regional leaders were forced to abandon a summit of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) due to protests.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

April 2, Bangkok Post
Kasit: Open Burma poll
Thailand will press Burma's military leaders in the coming week to open
its first elections in two decades to all political opponents and ethnic
minorities, said Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya.

''I'm concerned about national reconciliation [in Burma] and the
inclusiveness of the whole political process,'' Mr Kasit said.

Last week, opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who is under house arrest,
denounced new laws guiding the election as undemocratic and recommended a
boycott of the election, which is expected later this year.

Her National League for Democracy, which swept the last vote in 1990 but
was barred from taking power, decided on Monday to opt out of the election
and now looks likely to be dissolved.

Mr Kasit said the electoral laws looked discriminatory, as they provided
amnesty only to the military leadership and not to the political
opposition.

Thailand, he said, would raise the issue of political inclusiveness with
Burma's foreign minister in two days at a meeting of the Mekong River
Regional Commission, which Thailand is hosting.

He said Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva would also raise the issue when
he meets Burma's leaders at the Asean summit in Hanoi next week.

Mr Kasit said Indonesia's foreign minister is in Burma this week, adding:
''I'm sure he has taken up the collective concerns of the Asean members.''

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

April 2, The Independent (UK)
Why Burma's dictatorship is desperately hunting for a white elephant -
Phoebe Kennedy

Rangoon - For centuries, white elephants have been revered as a symbol of
power and good fortune in south-east Asia. Their discovery is a sign that
the nation will prosper, and its rulers are wise and just. Small wonder,
then, that when one of these rare creatures was spotted near Burma's
western coast earlier this year, the country's ruling generals sent in a
special army unit to capture it.

Never mind the international condemnation of Burma's military
dictatorship, suspected war crimes or shocking levels of poverty. If a
white elephant is found, so the superstition goes, then all will be well.

In the forested hills behind Ngwe Saung beach, elephants are used to haul
timber. It was one of their handlers who spotted the rare albino among a
herd of wild elephants in January. He reported the sighting to the head of
the timber company, the military was informed and the news was quickly
sent up the chain of command. According to soldiers in Ngwe Saung, Senior
General Than Shwe – the country's head – himself dispatched a company of
some 50 soldiers, with an entourage of elephant handlers and veterinarians
armed with tranquilliser darts.

Soe Tin, a local farmer, knew what this meant for him. The first sighting
of the elephant in 2008 brought a swarm of soldiers to the area. The
military commandeered the local workforce of banana farmers and charcoal
sellers to assist in an unsuccessful three-month search. When the hunt
resumed in January, Soe Tin was recruited again. "The village authorities
demanded one person from each household," the 41-year-old said. "We were
forced to work without pay."

The soldiers demanded that all the villages near the beach provided them
with unpaid labour – a practice that is common in Burma. The men left
their homes and their farms to act as guides and porters. "The soldiers
ordered us around. I just did what they said. I didn't dare speak up," the
farmer said.

The legend of the white elephant originates in tales of the birth of
Buddha: a white elephant reputedly appeared before his mother and
presented her with a sacred lotus flower. The ancient Burmese kings
believed that white elephants were found only during the reign of good
kings and that the possession of one would help a country prosper.
Conversely, the death of one of these creatures could spell disaster. The
demise of King Thibaw's favourite white elephant – who lived in
extravagant surroundings, adorned with diamonds and fed from a gold trough
– was soon followed by the monarch's ousting by British colonisers in
1885.

Burma's modern-day rulers revere the white elephant just as their royal
predecessors did. In 2001, the capture of a white elephant in the jungles
of Arakan state was hailed in the media as "an omen for the emergence of a
prosperous, peaceful and modern state". The "royal elephant" was brought
to Rangoon and presented to General Khin Nyunt – then first secretary of
the ruling State Peace and Development Council – who dressed it in full
military regalia and kept it at his private temple in a northern suburb of
Rangoon. But when Khin Nyunt was purged from his post as Prime Minister in
2004, the elephant fell out of favour.

The junta's leader, Than Shwe, and his army chiefs, now in their newly
built capital Naypyidaw, are still waiting for a white elephant of their
own. This would be an auspicious year to find one. Burma's first general
election in 20 years will be held later in 2010, but Western governments
have already dismissed the vote as a sham.

Recently announced election laws forbid the detained opposition leader
Aung San Suu Kyi from running for office. Her National League for
Democracy, faced with the choice of expelling its leader or boycotting the
election, has chosen to boycott it.

Amid the chorus of international criticism, the regime may be hoping that
the capture of the elephant will bestow legitimacy on its rule. But the
Burmese people, run down by years of political repression and economic
mismanagement, may not see it that way.

"Old symbols of the monarchy still hold some sway, and the possession of a
white elephant might boost the confidence of some, but I think for most
Burmese people today, just a little more spending on health and education
would be a much more welcome sign of enlightened government," said the
historian and author Thant Myint-U.

In the Ngwe Saung hills, the hunt goes on. Local farmers say they think
the herd is protecting the elusive beast – estimated to be around five
years old and 5ft tall. Farmers in the area where the creature was spotted
say they have been driven off their land. They claim soldiers have cut
down hardwood trees and allowed their hunting elephants to trample crops.

The search is causing misery and hardship, said Soe Tin. "No one has any
idea where this elephant is," he said. "If there is a white elephant out
there, I just hope they catch it very soon."

Additional reporting by Win Myat

White elephants Useless or exalted?

While the white elephant is revered in Burma, the phrase has a rather
different connotation in Britain, where it is defined as a "a possession
that is useless or troublesome," according to the Oxford English
Dictionary. It derives from the practice of the kings of Siam, the former
name for Thailand, to give rare albino elephants to ambitious courtiers.
So great was the honour and so prestigious the gift, that they would have
no choice but to look after the animal. However, the unwilling owner would
soon be ruined by the enormous cost of looking after it, with its
insatiable demand for bananas and sugar cane. The mystique of the animal
continues in Thailand through the honours system and the Most Exalted
Order of the White Elephant, established in 1861 by King Rama IV.

____________________________________

April 2, Mother Jones
Five reasons why Burma's elections are bogus – Mac McClelland

This week, Burma's National League for Democracy, the party of detained
Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, announced that it wouldn't participate in
the country's first elections in two decades, which are to be held
sometime later this year. Than Shwe, the general who heads the Burmese
junta, insists that the contest will be "free and fair," and despite
mountains of evidence to the contrary, some outside observers appear to be
buying the hype: ASEAN Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan said that the
elections are "a new beginning," and the New York Times ran a bizarrely
rosy story about the country's future. But the NLD boycott reflects what
everybody in Burma already knows—that the elections are a farce.

Let's take a look at the aforementioned mountains of evidence:

1. The government is already cheating. The military's proxy political
party, the Union Solidarity and Development Association, has spent
millions currying favor with the populace by paving roads, opening free
health clinics, and giving away high school tuition. This started before
the junta announced the rules for participating in the election (or even a
date; October is the rumor), effectively crippling other parties' ability
to start campaigning. When the government finally did reveal the campaign
rules, they were so stacked against the opposition—for example, barring
Aung San Suu Kyi from participating—that the NLD sued to have them
revised. The case was rejected.

2. Even if the generals don't win, they could still "win." In 2008, 92
percent of Burmese voters allegedly said yea to a constitution drafted by
the junta. Never mind that the new constitution basically legalized forced
labor or that the vote was held in the chaos following a cyclone that
killed 140,000 people. Also, the last time the government held multiparty
elections, in 1990, and lost to the NLD by a landslide, it simply declared
the results void and kept Aung San Suu Kyi incarcerated.

3. Even if the generals admit that they don't win, they still can't
actually lose. According to the constitution, 25 percent of the seats in
parliament are reserved for the military, and the current government picks
the candidates for president. And in the event that parliamentarians do
start exercising too much power, the military machine could always just
reassert control of the state, as it did in the coups of 1962 and 1988.
Than Shwe reminded the populace of this possibility last weekend when he
made the wholly unveiled threat that the army can step into politics
"whenever the need arises."

4. Bad guys will continue to hold the purse strings. The Times has cited
the government's decision to sell "a raft of state-run factories and
assets to cronies in the private sector" as a sign of progress. But the
reason the military is hastily selling off hundreds of state-owned
properties—buildings, land, oil and hydro projects, ports, an airline—to
its leaders and crooked friends is to guarantee that the country's economy
will remain in their grasp no matter what the election outcome.

5. There's the matter of rampant discrimination and war crimes. Don't
discount, as most Western media does, the millions of ethnic minorities
inside Burma's borders, many of whom will not participate in the elections
(the rules of which were published only in Burmese and English) and some
of which have armed insurgent groups threatening to come out of retirement
in the face of election-related turmoil. Also rarely discussed is the
full-on, horribly bloody war in the east of the country. These minorities'
continuing disenfranchisement and targeting for annihilation is hardly a
move toward peace and democracy. A UN official and more than 50 US
congresspeople have called for an investigation into the regime's crimes
against humanity, but a clause in the wildly popular constitution
stipulates that the perpetrators cannot be brought to justice.

ASEAN's Pitsuwan may have cause for saying that the Burmese government's
decision to hold elections is a "step forward"—after all, that's not
saying much about a government known for its total disregard for political
and human rights. But such falsely hopeful messages diminish the gaping
distance between Burma's current state and true democracy. Did the
National League for Democracy have any choice but to sacrifice their
chance to play along with the charade?