BurmaNet News, April 29, 2010

[Editor]

April 29, 2010, Issue #3951


INSIDE BURMA
AFP: Suu Kyi asks Supreme Court to stop party dissolution
DPA: Myanmar's premier registers party to contest upcoming polls
Mizzima News: DVB reporter’s appeal rejected

ON THE BORDER
Irrawaddy: Hundreds flee threat of war in Shan State
Irrawaddy: Rift between junta and DKBA deepens
Narinjara: USDA membership cards useless for travel for Muslims

REGIONAL
Bernama (Malaysia): Myanmar cajoles SAARC, eyes membership

INTERNATIONAL
AFP: Myanmar aid barriers hinder cyclone recovery: HRW
Irrawaddy: US report blasts Burma's record on religious freedom

OPINION / OTHER
TIME: Nay Phone Latt – Salman Rushdie
IPS: Pressure mounts on energy giant Chevron to disclose revenue – Marwaan
Macan-Markar

PRESS RELEASE
Burma Campaign UK: Burmese political prisoner Ko Mya Aye denied medical
treatment
HRW: Burma: After cyclone, repress impedes civil society and aid
humanitarian space across country again narrowing ahead of 2010 polls





____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

April 29, Agence France Presse
Suu Kyi asks Supreme Court to stop party dissolution

Yangon – Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi filed a lawsuit with
Myanmar's Supreme Court Thursday in an attempt to prevent the dissolution
of her party under a controversial new election law.

The detained pro-democracy icon's lawyer said two suits were submitted
against the top junta leader Senior General Than Shwe, one on behalf of
Suu Kyi herself and the other by her party, the National League for
Democracy (NLD).

The Nobel peace laureate asked the court to annul the part of the election
law that would have forced the party to oust its detained leader in order
to participate in the first polls to be held in two decades.

Instead, her party decided last month to boycott the elections, which are
expected to be later this year. The NLD faces dissolution if it fails to
re-register by May 6.

In addition, the lawsuits asked for the formation of a parliament made up
of lawmakers who won in 1990 elections, her lawyer Kyi Win told reporters.

The Supreme Court is expected to announce Friday whether it will accept
the request to hear the matter, he said.

Suu Kyi's party won a landslide victory in the 1990 polls, but the junta
never allowed it to take office, and placed her under house arrest for 14
of the next 20 years.

Myanmar's new election law nullifies the result of the 1990 polls.

"You can't change the rules during the game," Kyi Win said of the new
legislation. "We have to say these matters at the high court if we are
allowed."

In February the Supreme Court rejected an appeal by Suu Kyi against her
extended house arrest.

The 64-year-old opposition leader had her incarceration lengthened by 18
months in August after being convicted over a bizarre incident in which an
American man swam to her lakeside home in Yangon.

Critics dismiss the planned elections as a sham designed to entrench the
power of the military which has ruled since 1962.

Myanmar's prime minister and 22 other ministers retired from their
military posts this week, in a move seen as converting the leadership to
civilian form ahead of elections due this year.

____________________________________

April 29, Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Myanmar's premier registers party to contest upcoming polls

Yangon – Myanmar Prime Minister Thein Sein on Thursday registered a new
political party to contest a general election scheduled at an unspecified
date this year, state media reports said.

Thein Sein and 27 other ministers and deputy ministers have joined the
Union Solidarity and Development Party to contest the polls, Myanmar TV
announced.

The announcement followed a mass resignation of former general Thein Sein
and more than 22 other government ministers from their army posts on
Monday, providing them with the civilian status needed to contest a
general election.

Their party is believed to be a new form of the Union Solidarity and
Development Association (USDA), a pro-military mass organization that
claims more than 20 million members in Myanmar, where the total population
is close to 56 million.

Myanmar's ruling junta has promised an election this year as part of the
regime's "seven-step road map to democracy" but the date has not yet been
set.

Candidates are not allowed to hold a military rank.

Among those who resigned were Major General Nyan Win, minister of foreign
affairs, Colonel Zaw Min, minister for electrical power, former Major
General Khin Mg Myint, Major General Hla Tun, minister for finance and
revenue, Brigadier General Thein Zaw, minister of communication and
Brigadier General Tin Naing Thein, minister of commerce, said the
official, who asked to remain anonymous.

Also on the list were the ministers of interior, social welfare and
tourism, four deputy ministers, four members of the public service
selection board and two director generals.

In March, the junta passed legislation on the registration of political
parties that essentially forced the National League for Democracy (NLD)
opposition party to choose between dumping their leader, Nobel laureate
Aung San Suu Kyi, or not contesting the polls.

Under the registration rules, people currently serving prison terms are
not permitted to be members of political parties contesting the election.
Suu Kyi is currently serving an 18-month house detention term.

The NLD, which won Myanmar's last polls in 1990 by a landslide, has opted
not to contest this year's election.

Observers believe that without the NLD and Suu Kyi in the contest, the
polls are likely to be neither free nor fair nor anything more than a sham
exercise in democracy to cement the military's control over the country's
political future.

Myanmar has been ruled by military dictatorships since 1962.

____________________________________

April 29, Mizzima News
DVB reporter’s appeal rejected – Phanida

Chiang Mai – A reporter for a non-profit media organisation lost her
appeal in the Magway Division Court against a jail term of more than a
quarter of a century handed down in Pakokku, her lawyer said yesterday.

Hla Hla Win, video reporter for the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), based
in Norway, was sentenced to 27 years in Myitkyina prison in Kachin State.
Oral arguments of lawyers from both sides on her appeal against the
decision handed down in a Pakokku court were heard on April 5 and the
court rejected her appeal yesterday.

“The court said upheld the decision of the Pakokku court, thus rejecting
the appeal,”  Shwe Hla, Hla Hla Win’s lawyer said

Hla Hla Win was sentenced 20 years for violating the draconian Electronics
Act and the Video Act, 505 (b) and seven years for violating the
Import-Export Act, 5 (1) (for riding an unlicensed motorcycle).

Her lawyer said he would lodge an appeal with the Mandalay Division
Supreme Court.   “My client did not commit any illegal act. So, the
decisions of the inferior courts are unfair,” he said. “After we have
copied the judgments of the inferior courts, we will try to get the
deserved legal right .We will point out that the inferior courts’
decisions were unlawful, and continue pursuing legal proceedings in this
case.”

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

April 29, Irrawaddy
Hundreds flee threat of war in Shan State – Saw Yan Naing

Fang, Thailand – Hundreds of ethnic Shan, Lahu, Chinese and Thai
businesspeople, including some families of United Wa State Army (UWSA)
personnel, have moved to the Thai-Burmese border area because they fear a
serious flare-up of fighting between Burmese government troops and UWSA
units based in southern Shan State.

Several thousand UWSA soldiers and their families live in southern Shan
State opposite Fang District of Thailand's Chiang Mai Province. The UWSA,
which has about 25,000 men in uniform, is under pressure from the Burmese
regime to become a border guard force.
The United Wa State Army is among the strong ethnic armies in northern
Burma that Chinese officials are courting.

The departure of many local people to the relative safety of the 
Thai-Burmese border began in earnest on April 22, when a regime deadline
ran out for the UWSA to agree to transform itself into a border guard
force. Reports circulated that the Burmese army was planning to launch an
offensive against UWSA units in southern Shan State.

Clashes already occurred between UWSA units and Burmese troops on April 23
and 24, according to Thai soldiers posted at Ang Khang hill, about 23
kilometers from the Fang District border with Shan State.

Following the clashes, Thai troops were deployed near Nor Leang village on
the Thai-Burmese border, according to local residents.

The Thai army has also closed border trails in the Nor Leang area, fearing
mortar shells could land on Thai territory.

Two local schools have also been closed and children moved to safety.

Some Chinese nationals living in southern Shan State have moved to
Panghsang, the UWSA headquarters in northern Shan State. Some Thai
nationals have also returned home, according to sources on the
Thai-Burmese border.

Aung Kyaw Zaw, a Burmese observer on the Sino-Burmese border said about
2,000 Chinese in southern Shan State had moved to northern Shan State to
avoid a possible outbreak of hostilities.

Sources said some Wa families had sold their livestock, cars, motorcycles
and other personal belongings for knockdown prices before moving to the
border region opposite the Mae Ai District of Chiang Mai province.

The Thai army has urged ethnic Shan refugees at Khone Kyor camp in Wiang
Haeng District to remain on alert, according to the camp committee. More
than 600 refugees live at the camp.

A Shan refugee said: “The Thai army came to our camp and told us two days
ago not to worry and that if we heard shooting they will come and pick us
up in trucks and take us to a safe place if fighting occurs.”

Maj Sai Lao Hseng, a spokesman for the Shan State Army (SSA-S), said some
mortars had landed on Thai territory when fighting broke out between the
SSA-South and Burmese government forces in 2003.

Sai Lao Hseng said the Burmese army probably shelled UWSA troops on April
23 and 24 by mistake, thinking they were SSA-S troops.

Residents in the area of the Burmese-Thai border town of Tachileik have
also reportedly been moving to safety in Thailand.

Further north, in Kachin State, some people have been moving to China from
Laiza, headquarters of the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), fearing
an outbreak of fighting there, according to a resident of Myitkyina.

Some had crossed into China with border pass permits and were staying with
relatives in Yunnan Province, said one visitor.

Thai military authorities have warned that thousands of refugees will flee
into Thailand if war breaks out in southern Shan State. An influx of drugs
into Thailand's Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai provinces is also highly
expected, according to Pornthep Eamprapai, the director of the Office of
the Narcotics Control Board in Chiang Mai.

About 30,000 people, including Chinese residents of the Kokang capital,
Laogai, fled to China when Burmese government forces attacked the ethnic
Kokang ceasefire group known as the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance
Army in August 2009.

____________________________________

April 29, Irrawaddy
Rift between junta and DKBA deepens – Lawi Weng

Tension between Burmese junta troops and the Democratic Karen Buddhist
Army (DKBA) in Myawaddy township on the Thai-Burmese border has been
mounting since the disagreement on border guard issues.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Wednesday, a Karen source close to the DKBA
in Myawaddy township said: “The majority of DKBA members don't want to
lose the name of their organization. They are worried that without the
DKBA name, there will be no political objective and no hope for a better
future for ethnic Karen. This is why they don't want to transform their
troops into a border guard force (BGF).”

A member of the DKBA said its spiritual leader, the influential abbot
Ashin Thuzana, told DKBA leaders to keep their organization's name and not
to accept the Burmese junta's BGF plan.

A DKBA officer at the Three Pagodas Pass told The Irrawaddy: “We will
never betray our Karen people. We will keep our arms following our leader
Saw Ba U Gyi's principles and we will fight for the freedom of our Karen
people.”

He said certain people involved in the border trade in Myawaddy who are
close to the generals want the DKBA to join the BGF. While top leaders
reject the BGF plan, young leaders agree to accept it.

DKBA troops in the Three Pagodas Pass area are on alert as tension has
been mounting according to sources in the New Mon State Party (NMSP).

“Relations between them [Burmese junta troops and the DKBA] today are
unlike anything before. They don't trust each other now,” said Lawi Mon, a
member of the NMSP.

Nai Tain, a Mon driver in Myawaddy township, said Burmese authorities have
set up more checkpoints on the road between Myawaddy and Moulmein,
inspecting all vehicles and travelers.

The authorities seized unlicensed cars—many such cars belong to DKBA
members—entering Moulmein on Tuesday, he said, adding that this was part
of the pressure junta authorities were putting on the DKBA.

The DKBA, which has been used by the military regime as a proxy force to
combat insurgencies in Karen and Mon States, agreed to the BGF plan
shortly it was announced in April, 2009.

However, when Ashin Thuzana announced his opposition to the plan in
February, the group's leadership backed away from their original
acceptance.

Ashin Thuzana, 68, the abbot of Myaing Gyi Ngu Monastery in Karen State,
has long been active in the promotion of Buddhism in the area and has been
responsible for the construction of several pagodas in Myaing Gyi Ngu.

He was reportedly admitted to hospital in Bangkok for treatment of a
long-standing lung problem early in February. Burmese military officials
reportedly offered to admit him to a military hospital in Rangoon, but he
chose a private clinic in the Thai capital.

The  DKBA, which was formed 15 years ago, now controls most of the
Thai-Burmese border area previously controlled by the Karen National
Union.

It claims to have 6,000 troops and plans to enlarge its army to 9,000,
making it Burma's second largest non-state armed group. It has been
accused of human rights abuses in its clashes with KNU forces and also of
involvement in human trafficking along Thai-Burmese border.

The Burmese junta has put pressure on all the ethnic cease-fire groups in
Burma to transform their troops into BGF battalions since last year,
making April 22 the most recent deadline for acceptance. Many of the
groups remain defiant, refusing to accept the plan, however.

____________________________________

April 29, Narinjara
USDA membership cards useless for travel for Muslims

Maungdaw: The membership cards issued by the Union Solidarity and
Development Association cannot be used as a travel document by Muslim
members as guaranteed by the association during its campaign to expand in
Muslim villages in northern Arakan State, said Hafezul Rahman, a USDA
member, on Tuesday.

"We were told during the campaign that the USDA is the strongest and
biggest organization in Burma, and we would have the right to travel
freely across Arakan with the USDA membership card. But it is practically
impossible for us to travel from one Nasaka area to another even in our
own Maungdaw Township with that card," he said.

The Muslim people in northern Arakan, known as Rohingya among
international communities, have been confined to their own locales for
nearly two decades because of strict travel restrictions known as the
regional Muslim laws that have been imposed by the current military
regime.

Muslims, who wish to travel from their residence to another place have to
apply for approval of the immigration or Nasaka authorities and must pay
anywhere from 1,500 to 40,000 Kyat. Any person who travels without
permission is arrested and jailed from six months to one year by military
authorities.

"What the USDA guaranteed during the canvassing was just wooing to get
support from the Muslim community," he said. However, he added that when
he was traveling from his home to nearby Buthidaung Town recently, he was
sent away from the Nasaka check post at the Three-Mile Tunnel without
being arrested for traveling without permission after he showed his USDA
membership card.

According to other Muslim villagers, the USDA has since mid-2009 been
recruiting new members with propaganda promising full citizen rights, but
has mostly used force and threats of confiscating their property in
Buthidaung and Maungdaw Townships.

The USDA has already formed village units comprised of 15 to 30 members in
each village in the two northern townships.

Members are being provided with membership cards that list their ethnicity
and religion as either Myanmar/Muslim or Rakhine/Muslim, the same as their
white temporary citizen cards, which declare on the back, "by this card
the bearer cannot claim citizenship of any country."

Sources in Maungdaw told Narinjara that Deputy Home Minister Brigadier
General Phone Swe held meetings with government officials, USDA members,
and local Muslim residents during his visit from Rangoon to Buthidaung and
Maungdaw along with some prominent Muslim businessmen.

Phone Swe, in his meetings with local residents urged them to vote for the
"lion marker", which is the logo of the USDA for the forthcoming election.

News has been spreading in the Muslim dominated townships near Bangladesh
that four prominent Muslim businessmen, who are close associates of the
regime's generals, will contest as USDA candidates in the two townships in
the election.

Dr. Bashir and Htay Win are said to have been nominated to contest in the
Buthidaung constituencies, while Aung Zaw Win and Aung Naing will contest
in the Maungdaw constituencies.

Similarly, the National Unity Party, NUP, formerly known as the Burmese
Socialist Programme Party, has been launching campaigns to recruit members
and canvass for votes among the Muslim communities in Buthidaung and
Maungdaw Township since the beginning of this year.

Both the USDA and NUP, according to observers, are being backed by the
Burmese regime. Their recruitment activities and canvassing are flouting
the political party registration laws recently declared by the Union
Election Commission, as they have not yet registered and approved as
political parties with the commission.

According to the state-run media, only five out of 19 applicant parties
have been approved by the Election Commission to form political parties.
The 88 Generation Student and Youths (Union of Myanmar), the Union of
Myanmar Federation of National Politics, the PaO National Organization,
the Taaung National Party, and the Wunthanu NLD, have been approved to
form parties.

The Arakan League for Democracy, the party that won the third-highest
votes in Arakan State in the 1990 election in Burma, has declared they
will boycott the election, claiming that the constitution drafted by the
ruling regime has no democratic rights for ethnic minorities and is
designed to entrench military rule.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

April 29, Bernama (Malaysia)
Myanmar cajoles SAARC, eyes membership – P. Vijian

Thimphu -- Military-ruled Myanmar is cozying up to South Asian leaders to
entice deeper ties.

One of the oldest members of the 10-member Asean grouping, it has
expressed interest to ramp up closer relations with the South Asian
Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) -- a region to which the
country has century-old cultural and trade ties.

"In view of the geographical proximity, cultural and historical linkages,
we have a strong desire to promote closer relations with SAARC member
states. That is why we have joined SAARC as an observer.

"Myanmar's close cooperation with SAARC will provide us the opportunity to
serve as the gateway for South Asia to Southeast Asia, and also to East
Asian countries for the common benefit of the people in the region," U
Nyan Win, Myanmar's Foreign Affairs Minister said in his speech at the
16th SAARC Summit in Thimphu.

Myanmar, for the first time, became an observer country at this summit,
among other nations -- including Australia, Iran, and Japan. South Korea,
Mauritius and the United States.

Last year, reports had surfaced that Myanmar, isolated by the
international community for its poor human rights records and choppy
relations with some Asean members, had signaled to be part of the SAARC
grouping.

Myanmar military leaders, who are more close to India and Pakistan, had
expressed interest to become a full member in 2008, but currently, it is
accorded observer status.

India, with close trade and historical ties with Rangoon, was reported to
be backing Myanmar's entry into SAARC.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

April 29, Agence France Presse
Myanmar aid barriers hinder cyclone recovery: HRW

Bangkok – Two years after a devastating cycle struck Myanmar its military
regime is continuing to frustrate efforts to provide humanitarian aid to
survivors, a leading rights group said Thursday.

With elections expected by the end of the year, 22 aid workers remain
behind bars while restrictions on travel are further hampering efforts to
deliver much-needed assistance, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said.

"Two years after one of the world's worst natural disasters, local aid
workers still feel the brunt of continued repression by the military
authorities," said Elaine Pearson, the group's deputy Asia director.

Officials are slow to issue travel permits required to transport aid,
while the state is taking a more central role in running humanitarian
operations, fanning fears of manipulation, the New York-based group said
in a report.

Humanitarian access to the country is "again narrowing ahead of
elections," it said.

Restraints on aid delivery and oppressive election regulations targeting
opposition political parties show that the junta's mindset "emphasises
maintenance of control over the well-being of its citizens," it added.

The military government faced a storm of international criticism over its
slow aid response to Cyclone Nargis, which hit the country on May 2-3,
2008, killing more than 138,000 people and severely affecting 2.4 million
people.

A deal struck between the international community and the Myanmar
government led to an opening up of aid channels, but hopes that could lead
to greater access in the future were never realised, HRW said.

UN figures estimate that 100,000 people are still without adequate shelter
as the 2010 monsoon season approaches, while the agricultural, health and
education sectors remain in dire straits.

International donors should renew pressure on the ruling junta to ensure
that aid provisions are increased and political prisoners released ahead
of this year's polls, HRW said.

More than 20 aid workers and 2,000 political prisoners are behind bars in
the military-ruled country, it noted.

They include well-known comedian and activist Zarganar, who helped
organise aid deliveries to victims of the cyclone and is serving a 35-year
prison sentence for criticising the generals' response to the disaster.

____________________________________

April 29, Irrawaddy
US report blasts Burma's record on religious freedom – Lalit K Jha

Washington – A bipartisan US federal body has recommended the Washington
administration to keep Burma on its list of “countries of particular
concern” (CPC) because of their suppression of religious freedom.

Burma has been on a US State Department CPC list since 1999. The US
Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has recommended
that it stays there.

In its annual report, the USCIRF—which was created by an act of Congress
in 1998—says Burma's governing State Peace and Development Council has one
of the world’s worst human rights records.

 “In the past year, religious freedom conditions continued to deteriorate,
as they have since the violent suppression of peacefully demonstrating
Buddhist monks in September 2007,” the report says.

In a statement accompanying the report, USCIRF Chairman Leonard Leo said
it offered “new and important policy solutions to improve conditions where
foreign policy, national security, and international standards for the
protection of freedom of religion can and should intersect.”

The report's conclusion was clear, Leo said—“the Administration must do
more."

The USCIRF report alleges that Burma’s military regime continues a policy
of severely restricting religious practice, monitoring the activity of all
religious organizations and perpetuating or tolerating violence against
religious leaders and their communities.

 “The government launched a massive and violent crackdown, including the
killing, arrest, torture, and disappearances of monks and others who
participated in large scale, non-violent demonstrations calling for the
release of political prisoners and greater democracy in late September
2007,” it says.

The report also accuses the junta of continuing to target monasteries
viewed as epicenters of the protests, severely restricting religious
practice and detaining monks who commemorate the demonstration.

“The SPDC has taken steps to legally ban unregistered Protestant activity
and continues to destroy religious sites and forcibly promote conversion
to Buddhism in ethnic minority areas,” the report says.

“The SPDC’s campaign to create 'Muslim Free Zones' in parts of Burma has
created an estimated 300,000 Rohingya Muslim refugees in Southeast Asia,”
it charges. “Both Bangladesh and Thailand have repatriated or forcibly
removed Rohingya Muslims in the past year.”

While using engagement with the Burmese regime to “ensure a peaceful and
complete transition to democracy,” the US administration should maintain
targeted sanctions until the generals take active steps to meet benchmarks
established in UN resolutions and US law, the report says. It recommends
the administration to seek the support of regional allies, particularly
the democracies of Southeast Asia and South Asia.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

April 29, TIME
Nay Phone Latt – Salman Rushdie

There are two photos of Nay Phone Latt that I love. In the first one, he's
in a vacant lot flying a kite. In the other, he's standing in front of a
wall-size King Kong poster, a dinosaur lunging for his right ear.

Looking at these, it takes no great leap to guess what he is: a poet and
blogger. And since he lives in Burma, you can guess what else he is: a
prisoner.

The recipient of this years PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award,
Nay Phone Latt, 29, is the voice of a generation of Burmese who are
finding ways around an aging regimes desperate censorship. When the junta
there cracked down on Buddhist-monk-led demonstrations in 2007 and
restricted press coverage, Nay Phone Latts blog was a go-to source for
international journalists. For this, he was arrested and is serving 12
years.

As Burma charts its future in this crucial year, what it really needs is
kite flyers who stand up to giants. Will the generals let him go free?

Rushdie is a novelist

___________________________________

April 29, Inter Press Service
Pressure mounts on energy giant Chevron to disclose revenue – Marwaan
Macan-Markar

Bangkok – When shareholders of the multinational company Chevron gather
for their annual meeting in the U.S. city of Houston in late May, they
will come face to face with Naing Htoo, whose community has suffered due
to the exploits of the energy giant in military-ruled Burma.

"I want to expose what has gone on as a result of Chevron’s investments in
Burma," says the 30-year-old from the Karen ethnic minority. "The
shareholders need to know where their money is going and the suffering it
is causing."

Naing Htoo is hardly daunted by the challenge that lies ahead – his first
opportunity to address Chevron’s shareholders about the controversial
Yadana natural gas pipeline in southern Burma. "It is an opportunity to
use for change," he tells IPS of the window opened to him to address
Chevron’s shareholders between May 27 and 28.

The Karen activist’s foray into U.S. corporate culture is timed to add
pressure on Chevron shareholders. They are due to vote at the annual
meeting on a proposal that would "require the company to disclose payments
to foreign governments, including the junta in Burma," states EarthRights
International (ERI), a Washington D.C.-based environment and rights lobby
group.

But pressure on Chevron to be more transparent about its financial
dealings in Burma is expected to mount from other quarters, too. A
groundbreaking bill before the U.S. Congress that has bi-partisan support
could, if passed, compel companies profiting from oil, gas and mining to
reveal details of payments to governments of countries they have invested
in around the world.

The reach of the ‘Energy Security through Transparency Act’ for full
financial disclosure is not limited to U.S.-based companies in the energy
sector. The law will also force all foreign oil, gas and mining companies
registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to open
their books for scrutiny.

"The legislation pending in the Congress is unique," says Mathew Smith,
coordinator of the Burma project for ERI. "It would also apply to large
corporations registered with the SEC from China, India and South Korea,
which have investments in Burma. It would have a wide, sweeping impact."

With an eye on such landmark legislation, a global campaign was launched
on Apr. 27 calling on Chevron, the French-based oil giant Total and a
subsidiary of Thailand’s state-owned gas and oil company to publish "over
18 years of payments to the Burmese military regime."

Over 160 non-governmental organisations, labour unions, investment firms
scholars and political leaders, including the former prime minister of
Norway and the former president of Ireland, have signed on to this
campaign for financial transparency in Burma, officially known as Myanmar.

A two-page statement by the ‘Call for Total, Chevron and PTTEP to Practice
Revenue Transparency in Burma’ is urging the companies to publish
"comprehensive data and information". That includes taxes, fees, royalties
and bonuses paid to Burmese authorities since 1992, when the contract for
the Yadana gas pipeline was signed.

Taxes paid by Total to the Burmese junta in 2008 offered a glimpse at the
pipeline’s substantial contribution to the junta’s coffers. This
unprecedented public disclosure of the 254 million U.S. dollars in taxes
the regime earned was made the following year, in 2009.

"This is commendable but not enough. We want detailed disaggregated
figures of all payments to the Burmese regime," Smith tells IPS. "Revenue
transparency is a basic element of corporate social responsibility."

Chevron’s reluctance to disclose the income it generates for the junta
goes against its transparent practice elsewhere, argues Smith. "Chevron is
transparent about its finances in its investments in Thailand and it is
commonly available in the U.S."

Critics of the controversial pipeline have stated that its income has been
to the absolute benefit of a repressive regime, with barely a trickle for
the South-east Asian nation’s beleaguered people. From 2000, when gas
production started, till 2008, the junta earned an estimated eight billion
U.S. dollars from gas sales.

The area home to the Karens, where the pipeline snakes through, has hardly
benefited. Villages along the pipeline’s route, from the offshore natural
gas in the Andaman Sea to Thailand, still lack electricity and depend on
candles and lamps for light.

But the Karens, who are one of the country’s 130 ethnic minorities, have
suffered more since the inception of this controversial pipeline in 1991
to meet Thailand’s energy demands. Burmese soldiers assigned to provide
security during the constriction of the pipeline and since have been
fingered for a range of human rights and environmental abuses.

This heavily militarised area, which at one time saw 14 battalions
operate, also saw rape and torture of Karen villagers. "These human rights
violations continue even today," reveals Naing Htoo, the Karen activist.

"Multinational companies doing business in Burma can help change this even
if the regime is reluctant," says Wong Aung, coordinator of the Shwe Gas
Movement, an organisation of Burmese activists opposed to another oil and
gas pipeline project with Chinese investment to feed China’s energy
demands. "Revenue transparency is the way."

"It must be practised for the citizens of Burma, who can use the
information to monitor the government’s use of natural resource wealth and
demand accountability where none presently exists," he explains. "If the
Shwe gas project goes ahead, the regime will earn 29 billion U.S. dollars
in a 30-year period."

____________________________________

April 29, Guardian Unlimited (UK)
It's like locking up Burma's Billy Bragg – Melissa Benn

Aung San Suu Kyi does not stand alone. Let's show our support for Zarganar
and the thousands persecuted by a brutal junta

Next Monday afternoon a small demonstration in Trafalgar Square will draw
attention to the desperate situation of a talented writer with a wicked
sense of humour lying sick and isolated in a cell in the northern part of
his country, imprisoned solely for questioning and satirising his
country's regime.

Not tempted to read on? Briefly imagine the prosecution and long-term
imprisonment of the cartoonist Steve Bell or the comedy writer Armando
Iannucci for satirical works, or the singer Billy Bragg for inappropriate
activism, and you begin to grasp both the significance and madness of this
situation.

Maung Thura, better known as Zarganar, is a Burmese writer, poet, activist
and comedian, most recently arrested for leading a private relief effort
to deliver aid to victims of cyclone Nargis, which struck Burma in May
2008. When it became clear that the government was obstructing
international aid to the devastated Irrawaddy delta and surrounding areas,
Zarganar led efforts to raise and distribute aid from private donors.

Despite assurances from the authorities that private donors would be given
free access to cyclone-affected areas, he and at least 21 others were
later arrested for their participation in the voluntary aid effort. Among
his reported crimes was giving interviews to overseas radio stations and
other media about his work and the needs of the people. He also ridiculed
state media reports about the effect of the cyclone.

A 59-year prison sentence was later reduced to 35 years. Two years on,
there are desperate worries about his health following a collapse in
prison last April. He is said to be suffering from heart problems,
jaundice and a stomach ulcer that predate his current imprisonment.
Zarganar, winner of the inaugural PEN/Pinter prize for an international
writer of courage, is one of several prominent journalists and leaders who
have risked life and health to stand out against the brutal junta in
Burma. He was first arrested in October 1988 after making fun of the
government, but freed six months later. In May 1990 he impersonated
General Saw Maung, former head of the military government, to a crowd of
thousands at the Yankin teacher training college stadium in Rangoon.

Famous in his own country, Zarganar is virtually unknown here: one more
faceless name doing good things far away. In Burma, only the country's
imprisoned pro democracy movement leader Aung San Suu Kyi has broken
through the barrier of indifference and information overload. She is
rightly celebrated by leaders worldwide for her endurance, her calmness,
her refusal to descend into violence, bitterness or compromise. Her
personal story is tragic; her political story, inspirational.

But we would do well to remember that Suu Kyi is not the only one standing
up against unimaginable repression. She is instead the leader and totemic
representative of the 2,100 political prisoners incarcerated in Burma in
2010. Anyone concerned with freedom in general, and the situation in Burma
in particular, should look beyond her image and peer into the crowd of
brave people standing behind her - and then do what we can to support
them.

Free Zarganar! rally: Trafalgar Square, London, 2-4pm, Monday 3 May

____________________________________
PRESS RELEASE

April 29, Burma Campaign UK
Burmese political prisoner Ko Mya Aye denied medical treatment

Ko Mya Aye, one of the leaders of 88 Generation Students Group, which led
protests in 1988 and again in 2007, is being denied access to proper
medical treatment he urgently needs for a heart condition.

On 9th of April he was moved from Loikaw Prison in Karenni State to
Taungyi Prison in Shan State. Both prisons are many miles from emergency
medical care he will need if he has another heart attack, and too far away
for family to make regular visits.

Ko Mya Aye appears to be suffering from angina which has recently become
unstable causing heart failure and requiring urgent medical treatment. He
is also suffering from hypertension and gastric problems. He needs proper
medical tests that can only be done in Rangoon, and will probably require
an angioplasty operation or coronary artery bypass graft. So far there
have been none of the required medical tests or operations. Another angina
attack without access to emergency medical care would be very serious.

Taungyi prison is 450 miles away from Rangoon and 16 miles away from
Taungyi City. The distance from the main prison entrance to the prison
itself is about 4 miles.

Ko Mya Aye is also being held in conditions which are making his health
condition much worse. On his arrival in the jail he was put in a cell
which is for death row prisoners, and denied any exercise. There is no
toilet or running water in the cell and he has to go toilet in an open
field by the prison with no privacy.

“Ko Mya Aye should be released immediately so he can get the urgent
medical treatment that he needs,” said Mark Farmaner, Director of Burma
Campaign UK. “If the authorities will not release him, at the very least
they should allow him proper medical care.”

Burma’s generals systematically use the denial of medical treatment to
mistreat and abuse political prisoners. The Assistance Association for
Political Prisoners (Burma) estimates that 137 political prisoners are in
poor health as a result of harsh medical conditions or being denied proper
medical care.

Ko Mya Aye was arrested in 1989 and sentenced to 8 years imprisonment for
his role as a prominent student leader in the 1988 uprising. He served his
6 year prison term in notorious Insein prison, Rangoon, and was moved to
Taungoo prison for his last two years imprisonment.

He was released in 1996 and continued campaigning for freedom and
democracy. In 2004, 88 generation group was formed and Ko Mya Aye is one
of the student leaders of the group along with Min Ko Naing, Ko Ko Gyi and
Pyone Cho.

In 2007, the 88 generation students group led the peaceful protests at the
start of the uprising and several leaders were arrested and sentenced to
65 years and 6 months each.

For more information contact Mark Farmaner on 0794123960.
____________________________________

April 29, Human Rights Watch
Burma: After cyclone, repress impedes civil society and aid humanitarian
space across country again narrowing ahead of 2010 polls

(Bangkok) - The Burmese government continues to deny basic freedoms and
place undue restrictions on aid agencies despite significant gains in
rehabilitating areas devastated by Cyclone Nargis two years ago, Human
Rights Watch said in a new report released today.

Human Rights Watch called for renewed international pressure on the
Burmese government to gain the release of imprisoned local aid workers and
other political prisoners, and to ensure humanitarian aid reaches the
entire country.

"Two years after one of the world's worst natural disasters, local aid
workers still feel the brunt of continued repression by the military
authorities," said Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights
Watch. "Intense international pressure pushed the military government to
open the door to foreign aid agencies, but Burma's generals have kept it
shut for domestic critics, many of whom remain in prison for speaking out
for fellow citizens in need."

The 102-page report, "‘I Want to Help My Own People': State Control and
Civil Society in Burma after Cyclone Nargis," based on 135 interviews with
cyclone survivors, aid workers, and other eyewitnesses, details the
Burmese military government's response to Nargis and its implications for
human rights and development in Burma today. The report describes the
government's attempts to block assistance in the desperate three weeks
after the cyclone, which struck Burma's Irrawaddy Delta on May 2, 2008,
and the concerted response from increasingly assertive Burmese civil
society groups to overcome government restrictions to providing
assistance. The report details continuing violations of rights to free
expression, association, and movement against Burmese aid workers and
their organizations by the ruling State Peace and Development Council
(SPDC).

Cyclone Nargis killed more than 140,000 people and severely affected 2.4
million others in the Irrawaddy Delta and former capital city of Rangoon.
In the immediate aftermath of the cyclone, the Burmese military government
delayed and obstructed the international relief effort and even increased
its repression as it pushed ahead with a sham constitutional referendum on
May 10 and 24, 2008.

The impasse on international assistance ended only after an unprecedented
diplomatic agreement on May 31, 2008, between the SPDC, the United
Nations, and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).  This
arrangement facilitated an unprecedented influx of humanitarian assistance
to cyclone-affected areas, including the presence of local and
international aid workers who now enjoy improved access to provide
humanitarian relief.

While this opening was welcome, Human Rights Watch pointed out that there
are continuing difficulties of reconstruction in the delta including
access to water and sanitation, housing, health needs and livelihoods
which especially affect the area's farming and fishing communities. The
SPDC is failing to adequately support reconstruction efforts that benefit
the population, contributing only paltry levels of aid despite having vast
sums at its disposal from lucrative natural gas sales.

Humanitarian organizations told Human Rights Watch that hopes for a
significant expansion of international aid throughout Burma after Cyclone
Nargis have not been realized, with humanitarian space throughout the
country again narrowing ahead of elections likely to be held in late 2010.
Continued restraints on the delivery of aid and oppressive election
regulations targeting opposition political parties highlight the military
government's national security mindset that emphasizes maintenance of
control over the well-being of its citizens.

"The humanitarian needs of Burma's people for food, clean water, and basic
health care are immense because the military government has for so long
mismanaged the economy and put stringent conditions on aid," said Pearson.
"The good news is that after Nargis, the capabilities of Burmese relief
workers have grown to help fill this gap. The bad news is that gains in
the cyclone affected area have not been matched in the rest of the
country, where millions of Burmese are living in unnecessary poverty
fueled by systematic corruption and repression."

The report also describes how in the immediate weeks after Nargis, the
SPDC pushed ahead with a constitutional referendum with rigged results at
the expense of efforts by ordinary Burmese to assist survivors. In the
face of the government's callous response, Burmese civil society groups
and individuals raised money, collected supplies, and traveled to the
badly affected parts of the Irrawaddy Delta to help survivors in shattered
villages.

In the ensuing months, the SPDC arrested scores of Burmese activists and
journalists who publicly spoke out about the government's poor response to
Nargis. More than 20 people active in cyclone relief remain in prison
today, including Burma's famous comedian, Zargana, who received a 35-year
sentence. Human Rights Watch continues its campaign, 2100 in 2010: Free
Burma's Political Prisoners calling for the immediate release of these
prisoners and other political prisoners.

"The response of Burmese civil society to Nargis has been inspirational,
but it is a disgrace that outspoken relief workers are imprisoned with
harsh sentences," Pearson said. "Ahead of the 2010 elections, the
international community needs to speak with one voice about the need for
Burma's leaders to release Zargana, other aid workers, and the more than
2,100 political prisoners in the country."

Selected accounts from cyclone survivors and Burmese and international aid
workers interviewed for the report:

"Nargis was the worst experience of my life. The last thing I remember is
the lightning coming together with a strong wind and later a giant wave
covered my daughter and me while we were running to the monastery. Then we
were separated. I was washed away by the wave and became unconscious. When
I came around, there were no clothes on my body and I could not walk as I
had no strength. Beside me there was a dead body. I was lying like that
for two days I think. I tried very hard to look for my daughter. Later
people with a boat rescued me. There was no warning about the storm."

- "May Khin," a 45-year-old woman survivor of Cyclone Nargis from Laputta
township

"When Cyclone Nargis struck, there was no authority visible even in
Rangoon, because there was so much damage, and it was clear that the
authorities couldn't meet the needs of the people so they decided to stay
away. This was alarming to the public - suddenly we found no soldiers and
no local authorities on the street. People had to rely solely on
themselves, but we had never found ourselves in such a situation."

- "Myo Nyunt," a Burmese community aid worker interviewed by Human Rights
Watch in Rangoon, March 2010.

"I want to save my own people. That's why we go with any donations we can
get. But the government doesn't like our work. It is not interested in
helping people. It just wants to tell the world and the rest of the
country that everything is under control and that it has already saved its
people."

- Comedian and community aid worker Zargana, interviewed by Burmese exiled
media days before his arrest in Rangoon on June 4.

"I have no idea what the constitution is. But we did vote after Nargis. We
were told just to cast ‘Yes' vote. I don't know how the result came out.
At the time, people were struggling hard to survive. We just did what we
were told."

- "Ma Mei Mei," a young woman from Dedaye township describing the
constitutional referendum three weeks after Cyclone Nargis.

"The experience in the delta hasn't made any difference to access to the
rest of the country at all. But the experience of Nargis has changed the
relationship between the aid groups and some individuals in the government
and has developed trust. But we're just not sure how high up. This hasn't
improved access to other parts of the country in our experience."

- Head of major international aid agency based in Rangoon, Human Rights
Watch interview, Rangoon, March 2010.

To read “‘I Want to Help My Own People’: State Control and Civil Society
in Burma after Cyclone Nargis,”  please visit:
http://www.hrw.org/node/89954

To read Human Rights Watch's 2008 letter to donors on reconstruction after
Cyclone Nargis,  please visit:
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2008/07/22/letter-donors-reconstruction-after-cyclone-nargis

To read Human Rights Watch World Report 2010 chapter on Burma please
visit: http://www.hrw.org/en/node/87392


For more information, please contact:
In Bangkok, Elaine Pearson (English): +66 82 816 9845, or +1-646-291-7169
(mobile)
In Bangkok, Sunai Phasuk (English and Thai): +66-81-632-3052 (mobile)
In New York, Phil Robertson (English and Thai): +1-917-378-4097 (mobile)
In Washington, DC, Tom Malinowski (English): +1-202-612-4358; or
1-202-309-3551 (mobile)
In Brussels, Reed Brody (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese):
+32-2-737-1489; or 32-498-625786 (mobile)