BurmaNet News, May 10, 2010

[Editor]

May 10, 2010, Issue #3958


INSIDE BURMA
DVB: Water shortages sweeping Burma
DVB: Privatised petrol stations to open

ON THE BORDER
SHAN: Yawdserk: I will surrender only to the Thais

BUSINESS / TRADE
Livemint.com: Indian team to visit Myanmar for expediting power projects

REGIONAL
New Age (Bangladesh): EU wants Burma to resolve refugee crisis in Bangladesh

INTERNATIONAL
NYT: US Diplomat meets with Myanmar opposition leader
AP: US envoy warns Myanmar over NKorea arms

OPINION / OTHER
Press Release: US Embassy in Rangoon - Kurt Campbell
Japan Times: Path of engagement with Burma – Wesley K. Clark, Henrietta H.
Fore
DVB: Interview with Elaine Pearson: Malaysia falls short – Joseph Allchin
NLM: Union Election Commission issues Notification No. 41/2010

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA


May 10, Democratic Voice of Burma
Water shortages sweeping Burma – Min Lwin

Lakes and freshwater wells in central Burma are drying up, fuelled by hot
weather and abnormal river flows resulting from hydropower projects.

A local in Sagaing division’s capital, Monywa, said that wells were drying
up in every ward of the city. “The well in our ward dried up and now
everyone is out of water,” he said.

Water levels on the Irrawaddy river and its largest tributary, the
Chindwin river, which flows through Sagaing division, are low, and sand
banks are appearing with increasing frequency.

The Mekong river, which supports millions of people from China to
Cambodia, is at its lowest level in nearly half a century, largely as a
resulting of heavy damming by the Chinese.

Residents of Pyin Oo Lwin, in central Burma’s Mandalay division, said that
villages located south of Myit Nge river were also suffering water
shortages because a hydropower dam recently built upstream had blocked the
channel.

In Monywa, locals are being forced to travel three miles to collect water
from the Chindwin river; until recently the water had been pumped to the
village, but ongoing electricity cuts have made this impossible.

Despite Burma’s aggressive expansion of its hydropower sector, much of the
electricity is sold to neighbouring Thailand and China, despite the
country being plagued by electricity shortages.

Around 60 villages in Bago division are also reportedly facing severe
water shortages, which has been fuelling stomach illnesses as people
revert to drinking untreated water.

A former member of the now disbanded opposition National League for
Democracy (NLD) party who has been coordinating water relief efforts in
Bago said that bottling factories had been donating water while “we
haven’t seen any work from local government administrations yet”.

In Irrawaddy division’s Laputta township, residents said that even
government troops were being affected by the shortage, while lakes “aren’t
even holding enough water for animals such as buffalos to drink”.

In nearby Ngaputaw, villagers are being forced to stand in queues into the
night to collect water from wells “where they spend a lot of time skimming
shallow water from bottom of the wells”, a local said.

Additional reporting by Naw Noreen

____________________________________


May 10, Democratic Voice of Burma
Privatised petrol stations to open – Joseph Allchin

Some 250 petrol stations in Burma earmarked for privatisation in January
as part of a grand economic reshuffle by the government are to open next
weekend.

The stations are scattered throughout the country, with around 50 in
Rangoon division, 40 in Mandalay division, 37 in Bago division, 27 in
Irrawaddy division and 25 in Shan state.

“It is a two-sided story: one side is that the government has monopolised
the sector for a long time, since the military coup in 1962, so it is the
government losing its monopoly,” said Burmese economic analyst, Aung Thu
Nyein. “But at the same time the assets were only transferred to the
cronies.”

“I think there are less than ten companies who got licenses to run gas
stations; some were transferred to agri-businesses and construction
companies,” he added.

The likely owners of the stations are suspected to be the Htoo Group, Asia
World and the Eden Group, all of whom have close ties to the ruling junta.

Burma is heavily reliant upon imported fuel as a result of a lack of
refining capabilities in the country.

The current privatisation initiative is part of a move towards free trade
of petroleum products, which has been overseen by the newly formed Fuel
Oil Importers and Distributors Association (FOIDA).

There is hope that private enterprise will be able to run the energy
sector more efficiently than the government monopoly. However given
Burma’s reliance upon imported refined petroleum products, the private
sector may be unable to control retail prices or not have the incentive to
do so.

Burma imports around 18,500 barrels of refined petroleum per day, worth
some $US586.6 million per year.

The implications are that gas prices could become more volatile in the
long term as the government is less able to control supply and demand and
distribution of fuel and therefore shield the economy from major
fluctuations in international prices. “The economy is reliant upon
international prices and could be liable to crises of supply
internationally,” said Aung Thu Nyein.

Another potential concern is the relationship that these newly privatised
assets, originally nationalised in 1962 and 1963, have with the military
government.

Prior to 1962, the assets belonged to individuals who received no
compensation upon their nationalisation and were offered no chance to
retrieve them on privatisation. To maintain ownership, given a potentially
more open legal system of property rights, the new owners will rely on the
military for protection from civilian court claims.

As a result or not the military may also demand fuel from the private
sector, Aung Thu Nyein suspects, with such impositions threatening a rise
in prices.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

May 10, Shan Herald Agency for News (S.H.A.N.)
Yawdserk: I will surrender only to the Thais

Speaking on the ongoing political and military maneuvers of Burma’s ruling
junta to divide its armed opponents and force them into submission in the
end, Shan State Army (SSA) South leader Yawdserk said he would rather
surrender to Thailand instead of the Burma Army “if I have to.”

“Western colonizers had tried to divide us by demarcating boundary lines,”
he said. “But nothing can stand between the hearts of our two peoples.”

Thais, Shans and Laos are historic and linguistic cousins coming from the
same racial family. The word “Thai” is a distortion of “Tai” which Shans
call themselves. Conversely, the word ‘Shan’ itself is a corruption of
“Siam,” Thailand’s former name, and the name given to the peoples of Tai
stock by the Mon-Khmers.
Shan State Army (SSA) South leader Yawdserk

Following Naypyitaw’s ultimatum last year to the ethnic armed groups that
had concluded ceasefire pacts with the regime since 1989 to become
junta-run militias, the non-ceasefire armed movements including the SSA
South have been calling for unified resistance to overthrow, once and for
all, Burma’s almost half a century long military dictatorship.

The regime has been countering the SSA’s efforts by spreading false
reports of secret meetings between the two, said the 51 – year old
Yawdserk, who was promoted by the SSA’s annual meeting last January to
lieutenant-general.

According to one of the latest stories taking the rounds among the
ceasefire groups, among which the United Wa State Army (UWSA) is regarded
as the strongest, Naypyitaw has been calling for a joint alliance against
drug smuggling armed groups. “The Wa leadership was understandably deeply
disturbed by the report,” said an informed source from the Sino-Burma
border.

Naypyitaw, through a former MTA officer who had surrendered, had recently
made overtures to Loi Taileng, where the SSA is headquartered. “I told him
we were ready to negotiate in the common interests of all groups
concerned,” said Yawdserk. “But if it’s only between us and Naypyitaw, the
answer is No. He returned home empty-handed.”

Another was the report that Yawdserk, like the late Khun Sa of Mong Tai
Army (MTA), had plans of his own to woo all anti-Naypyitaw groups to join
him and afterwards turn them over to the regime, just like Khun Sa did in
1996. It was to this story that Yawdserk was responding to in the first
place.

“We need to communicate with each other directly instead of using
middlemen to clear away questions such as these,” he added.

He also urged all the groups concerned to seriously consider a political
alliance rather than a military one. “If it’s only a military coalition,
how, in the long run, can we trust each other?” he asked rhetorically.
“More than that, our neighboring countries that have interests in our
country, how can they trust us?”

The SSA South has been calling for total independence from Burma, but
Yawdserk assures he will abide by the common goal agreed by the majority
of the yet to be formed alliances members.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

May 10, LiveMint.com
Indian team to visit Myanmar for expediting power projects - Utpal Bhaskar

Govt plans to revive the 1,200MW Tamanthi hydroelectric power plant and
642MW Shwezaye project

New Delhi - As part of India’s economic diplomacy initiative to engage
Myanmar and counter China’s growing influence in that country, an Indian
team will be leaving for the eastern neighbour on Tuesday to discuss
building power plants and transmitting some of the electricity to India.

India plans to revive the stalled 1,200MW Tamanthi hydroelectric power
plant and 642MW Shwezaye project on the Chindwin river, the largest
tributary of the Irrawaddy river, Myanmar’s key commercial waterway. The
memorandum of association for these projects are expected to be signed by
December.

The delegation will comprise officials from state-owned firms NHPC Ltd and
Power Grid Corp. of India Ltd (PGCIL), said a government official who did
not want to be identified.

The visit is part of the Indian government’s exercise to improve
diplomatic and economic ties with a neighbour that has rich deposits of
natural gas. Myanmar has natural gas reserves of 89.722 trillion cu. ft
(tcf), of which 18.012 tcf are proven recoverable reserves, or gas that
can be easily extracted and tapped.

Sudhir Kumar, joint secretary, hydropower, in India’s ministry of power,
who is part of this delegation, declined comment. S.K. Garg, chairman and
managing director, NHPC, confirmed the impending visit and said: “Survey
and investigation work are yet to be completed. No modalities have been
worked out so far.”

“A transmission link for the evacuation of power is expected to be set up.
We had submitted a report on the transmission of power around
one-and-a-half years back,” a PGCIL executive said on condition of
anonymity.

Tamanthi is in north Myanmar. Once completed, the project would help
control floods and provide water for irrigation in the region. India would
receive the bulk of the power generated. Myanmar has hydroelectric power
potential of 39,720MW and an installed capacity of 747MW.

A power transmission link with Myanmar would also help towards a power
inter-link of countries of South Asian Association for Regional
Cooperation (Saarc), which groups India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar,
Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and the Maldives. The Saarc grid
envisaged meeting electricity demands and boosting economic and political
ties in the region.

The embassy of Myanmar in New Delhi could not be contacted. Questions
emailed to it bounced back.

The projects are integral to India for its engagement with Myanmar.
India’s ministry of external affairs, or MEA, will underwrite as much as
Rs40 crore in expenses to be incurred by NHPC on hydrological studies
needed to develop the two power plants in that country. The ministry has
funded the cost for additional investigations and the preparation of
updated detailed reports for both the projects.

NHPC had earlier submitted reviews of feasibility reports for the Tamanthi
and Shwezaye projects to MEA and the power ministry. Subsequently, the
reports were accepted by the department of hydropower implementation of
the Myanmar government. The feasibility reports of Tamanthi and Shwezaye
were prepared by Switzerland’s Colenco Power Engineering Ltd and Japan’s
Kansai Electric Power Co. Inc., respectively.

Analysts say that since inter-country deals are complex, they are best
handled between governments rather than by commercial entities.

“We have similar plans with Nepal and Bhutan. However, in the case of
Myanmar, the challenges are many, especially from the evacuation point of
view,” said K. Ramanathan, distinguished fellow at The Energy and
Resources Institute. “There are also geopolitical and technical
challenges.”

utpal.b at livemint.com

____________________________________
REGIONAL


May 9, New Age (Bangladesh)
EU wants Burma to resolve refugee crisis in Bangladesh

Myanmar [Burma] should initiate a move to resolve the Rohingya refugee
problem regionally because that country has created the crisis, the
European Union said in Dhaka Saturday.

"The (Rohingya) problem came from Myanmar. So any resolution should come
from Myanmar," the European Union Head of the Delegation, Stefan Frowein,
said a press conference Saturday.

He described Rohingya problem as a regional issue as several hundred
thousand members of the community had fled their homes in Myanmar to take
refuge in Bangladesh, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Australia.

"It is a regional problem" and a holistic approach, involving China and
ASEAN, is essential to resolve it, he said.

When asked whether the EU was taking any move to persuade Myanmar not to
force members of the Rohingya community to leave their country, he said
Myanmar was not an easy partner 'to talk to'.

He, however, said that the South East Asian regional grouping ASEAN, of
which Myanmar was an active member, and China, which had 'privileged
relationship' with Myanmar, could use their good offices to resolve the
crisis.

He praised Bangladesh for hosting so many refugees for 18 years.

The EU ambassador said a new programme of 15 million euros was in the
offing to improve the conditions of the local community living in the
surroundings of the Rohingya camps in Cox's Bazar.

Danish ambassador Einar H Jensen, French ambassador Charley Causeret,
German ambassador Holger Michael, Italian ambassador Itala Occhi, Spanish
ambassador Arturo Perez Martinez, Swedish ambassador Britt Falkman
Hagstrom and Anja Roelofs, frist secretary of the Netherlands embassy,
were present at the press conference at Dhaka Sheraton hotel.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL


May 10, New York Times
U.S. Diplomat Meets With Myanmar Opposition Leader - Mark McDonald

Hong Kong — A senior United States diplomat met with the leader of
Myanmar’s principal opposition party on Monday, three days after it was
disbanded after refusing to register for an election it considered to be
undemocratic.

The envoy, Assistant Secretary of State Kurt M. Campbell, spoke with Daw
Aung San Suu Kyi early Monday afternoon, a Western diplomat said. The
meeting took place at a government guesthouse near her home in Yangon,
Myanmar’s principal city and the former capital.

Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi, the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has been
detained for most of the past 20 years, mostly under house arrest at her
lakeside home. She turns 65 next month.

In a statement Monday night, Mr. Campbell applauded Mrs. Aung San Suu
Kyi’s “compassion and tolerance for her captors in the face of repeated
indignities.”

“It is simply tragic,” he said, “that Burma’s generals have rebuffed her
countless appeals to work together to find a peaceable solution for a more
prosperous future.”

Mr. Campbell also conferred Monday with some of the senior leaders of Mrs.
Aung San Suu Kyi’s party — the “uncles” — including its former deputy
chairman, U Tin Oo.

The party, the National League for Democracy, formally shut down last
Friday rather than comply with onerous registration requirements and other
election protocols set up by the junta. A senior N.L.D. official, Khin
Maung Swe, said he has since formed a new party, according to a report in
an online news portal, The Irrawaddy.

The government has said it will hold parliamentary elections this year but
has not announced the date. The N.L.D. won the last elections, in 1990,
but the results were ignored by the military, which has continued to rule
ever since.

Mr. Campbell said Monday night that “what we have seen to date leads us to
believe that these elections will lack international legitimacy.”

Mr. Campbell landed on Sunday in Bangkok, the capital of Thailand, where
he told a news conference that the United States administration was
“troubled” by the recent political developments in Myanmar that had led to
the dissolution of the N.L.D.

Later on Sunday he proceeded to Naypyidaw, the capital of Myanmar, where
he reportedly met with Foreign Minister Nyan Win; Information Minister
Kyaw San; and U Thaung, a former ambassador to the United States who now
directs Myanmar’s nuclear energy program as minister of science and
technology.

Senator Judd Gregg, Republican of New Hampshire, sponsored a resolution
that passed the Senate last week that denounced the junta and called for
the release of Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners in
Myanmar.

“I regret that the military regime in Burma continues to display a
complete and total disinterest in positive relations with the United
States, and credible and fair elections for the people of Burma,” Mr.
Gregg said.

He added that the United States “expects the military regime to
dramatically expand political participation and create an environment free
from fear and intimidation before we will consider elections in Burma as
anything but a farce.”

The United States and other Western nations have established a broad range
of sanctions against Myanmar and the ruling generals.

____________________________________


May 10, Associated Press
US envoy warns Myanmar over NKorea arms

Yangon - A top U.S. official visiting Myanmar warned Monday that its
military regime should abide by U.N. sanctions that prohibit buying arms
from North Korea, and also said the junta's election plans lack
legitimacy.

Kurt Campbell, assistant secretary of state for East Asia, read a
statement to the press as he prepared to leave Myanmar after holding
nearly two hours of closed-door talks with detained opposition leader Aung
San Suu Kyi, whose party was disbanded last week as a result of its
refusal to register for the polls, slated for sometime this year.

He did not reveal details of their talks, but praised her nonviolent
struggle for democracy.

"She has demonstrated compassion and tolerance for her captors in the face
of repeated indignities," he said. "It is simply tragic that Burma's
generals have rebuffed her countless appeals to work together to find a
peaceable solution for a more prosperous future." Burma is another name
for Myanmar.

Campbell earlier held talks with several Cabinet ministers.

The U.S. envoy issued what appeared to be Washington's strongest warning
to date concerning Myanmar's arms purchases from North Korea, which some
analysts suspect includes nuclear technology.

A U.N. Security Council resolution bans all North Korean arms exports,
authorizes member states to inspect North Korean sea, air and land cargo
and requires them to seize and destroy any goods transported in violation
of the sanctions.

Campbell said that Myanmar leadership had agree to abide by the U.N.
resolution, but that "recent developments" called into question its
commitment. He said he sought the junta's agreement to "a transparent
process to assure the international community that Burma is abiding by its
international commitments."

"Without such a process, the United States maintains the right to take
independent action within the relevant frameworks established by the
international community," said Campbell.

He did not explain what the new developments were or what action the U.S.
might take, though it has in the past threatened to stop and search ships
carrying suspicious cargo from Pyongyang.

Campbell said that in talks with senior officials, the U.S. side had also
outlined a proposal "for a credible dialogue" for all concerned parties to
agree on how to conduct upcoming polls, the first since 1990. But the
junta had instead moved forward unilaterally without consulting opposition
and independent voices.

"As a direct result, what we have seen to date leads us to believe that
these elections will lack international legitimacy," he said. "We urge the
regime to take immediate steps to open the process in the time remaining
before the elections." The exact date for the polls has not yet been set.

Campbell's visit, his second in six months, came just days after the
dissolution of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party, or NLD,
which won the 1990 election but was never allowed to take power.

The party considers newly enacted election laws unfair and undemocratic as
Suu Kyi and other political prisoners would be barred from taking part in
the vote and so declined to reregister as required, which meant it was
automatically disbanded last week.

Suu Kyi was driven from her home in a three-car police motorcade to the
nearby government guesthouse for the talks with Campbell. The Nobel Peace
Prize laureate has been detained, mostly under house arrest, for 14 of the
past 20 years. Her freedom has been a long-standing demand of the United
States and much of the world community, including the United Nations.

Campbell also voiced concern about the increasing tensions between the
government and ethnic minorities that have long been striving for greater
autonomy, but face sometime severe repression.

"Burma cannot move forward while the government itself persists in
launching attacks against its own people to force compliance with a
proposal its ethnic groups cannot accept," he said. "The very stability
the regime seeks will continue to be elusive until a peaceable solution
can be found through dialogue."

Campbell arrived Sunday and met with senior junta officials in the remote
administrative capital of Naypyitaw before flying Monday to Yangon, the
biggest city. Among the officials he met were Foreign Minister Nyan Win,
Information Minister Kyaw San and Science and Technology Minister U Thaung
Myanmar's former envoy in Washington who is the point person for the
U.S.-Myanmar engagement.

Relations between Myanmar, also known as Burma, and the U.S. have been
strained since its military crushed pro-democracy protests in 1988,
killing hundreds, possibly thousands, of demonstrators. Since then,
Washington has been Myanmar's strongest critic, applying political and
economic sanctions against the junta for its poor human rights record and
failure to hand over power to a democratically elected government.

Campbell, however, said he would continue a dialogue with all sides in
Myanmar as part of a new Washington policy of engagement rather than
isolation of the ruling generals.

Last year President Barack Obama reversed the Bush administration's
isolation of Myanmar in favor of dialogue with the junta.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

Press Release: U.S. Embassy Rangoon

Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell
May 10, 2010
Rangoon, Burma

I have just completed my second trip to Burma.

During my two-day trip, I met with a wide variety of stakeholders inside
the country. In Nay Pyi Taw, I held consultations with the Minister of
Science and Technology, the Foreign Minister, the Minister of Information
and the Spokes Authoritative Team, the Union Election Commission, the
Labor Minister, and the head of the USDA.

In Rangoon, I met with a number of community leaders of ethnic minority
groups, the National League for Democracy, key members of the diplomatic
corps, NGOs, a variety of political players, and Aung San Suu Kyi.

This trip comes as part of a process the Obama Administration launched
last year. In February 2009, Secretary Clinton announced that we would
undertake a review of our Burma policy, stating clearly that neither
sanctions nor engagement, when implemented alone, had succeeded in
influencing Burma’s generals. Over the course of the seven months of the
policy review, we consulted widely and deliberately in order to seek the
best ideas from around the world and at home. The result of that extensive
review was to launch a policy of pragmatic engagement with Burma’s
leadership. We have engaged in senior-level dialogue with the regime. Yet
we have not lifted sanctions, nor have we abandoned our commitment to the
people of Burma. Our strategic goal for Burma remains unchanged: we wish
to see a more prosperous, democratic Burma that lives in peace with its
people and with its neighbors.

The United States has approached this engagement with goodwill. We
continue to consult and coordinate closely with key countries, including
those within ASEAN, the European Union, with India, Japan, China, and
others, and a number of players outside governments seeking a more
positive future in Burma.

The key objective of my trip to Burma was to underscore the purposes and
principles of our engagement, and to lay out the reasons for our profound
disappointment in what we have witnessed to date.

During various discussions with Burma’s senior leadership, we have
outlined a proposal for a credible dialogue among all stakeholders in
Burma that would allow all sides to enter into such a dialogue with
dignity. Unfortunately, the regime has chosen to move ahead unilaterally –
without consultation from key stakeholders – towards elections planned for
this year. As a direct result, what we have seen to date leads us to
believe that these elections will lack international legitimacy. We urge
the regime to take immediate steps to open the process in the time
remaining before the elections.

We have also asked for greater respect for human rights and the release of
political prisoners. The regime has detained many of Burma’s brightest and
most patriotic citizens, citizens that could contribute greatly to
ensuring a more prosperous future for their country. Instead the regime
has silenced them, dispersing them to remote locations throughout the
country where the generals hope they will be forgotten. They are not.

We have raised our persistent concerns about the increasing tensions
between Burma’s ethnic minorities and the central government that have
resulted in violence along the country’s borders. The regime has ratcheted
up the pressure on Burma’s ethnic groups in preparation for this year’s
elections, forcing countless innocent civilians to flee. Burma cannot move
forward while the government itself persists in launching attacks against
its own people to force compliance with a proposal its ethnic groups
cannot accept. The very stability the regime seeks will continue to be
elusive until a peaceable solution can be found through dialogue.

Finally, we have urged Burma’s senior leadership to abide by its own
commitment to fully comply with UN Security Council Resolution 1874.
Recent developments call into question that commitment. I have asked the
Burmese leadership to work with the United States and others to put into
place a transparent process to assure the international community that
Burma is abiding by its international commitments. Without such a process,
the United States maintains the right to take independent action within
the relevant frameworks established by the international community.

Although we are profoundly disappointed by the response of the Burmese
leadership, I remain inspired by those outside the government with whom I
met. I admire the resolve of Burma’s ethnic groups that wish to live in
peace and to have a representative stake in the future of their own
country. I respect the difficult decision Burma’s political parties have
taken regarding the upcoming elections. Some have decided to participate,
some will not. It is the right of a free people to make those decisions
for themselves, and the United States respects their decisions.

I would like to take a moment to applaud the leaders of the National
League for Democracy – a political party that has struggled for more than
two decades to improve the lives of the Burmese people – with whom I held
a lengthy meeting. Although having been denied a legal framework in which
to operate by the regime’s own flawed rules, its leadership remains
committed to working on behalf of and for the Burmese people. The United
States will continue to stand behind all those working to support Burma’s
people, including the National League for Democracy; however it may
constitute itself in the future.

Finally, I was again moved by the perseverance and the commitment Aung San
Suu Kyi has shown to the cause of a more just and benevolent Burma and to
the Burmese people themselves. She has demonstrated compassion and
tolerance for her captors in the face of repeated indignities. It is
simply tragic that Burma’s generals have rebuffed her countless appeals to
work together to find a peaceable solution for a more prosperous future.

The strength and resilience of those who struggle continue to inspire us.
The United States stands by the Burmese people in their desire for a more
democratic, prosperous, and peaceful nation.
____________________________________

May 10, Japan Times
Path of engagement with Burma – Wesley K. Clark, Henrietta H. Fore,
Suzanne DiMaggio

New York — The Obama administration's decision to seek a new way forward
in U.S.-Burma relations recognizes that decades of trying to isolate Burma
(aka Myanmar) in order to change the behavior of its government have
achieved little. As Burma's ruling generals prepare to hold elections
later this year — for the first time since 1990 — it is time to try
something different.

Attempting to engage one of the world's most authoritarian governments
will not be easy. There is no evidence to indicate that Burma's leaders
will respond positively to the Obama administration's central message,
which calls for releasing the estimated 2,100 political prisoners
(including Aung San Suu Kyi), engaging in genuine dialogue with the
opposition, and allowing fair and inclusive elections.

In fact, the recently enacted electoral laws, which have been met with
international condemnation, already point to a process that lacks
credibility.

This past fall we convened a task force under the auspices of the Asia
Society to consider how the United States can best pursue a path of
engagement with Burma. We concluded that the U.S. must ensure that its
policies do not inadvertently support or encourage authoritarian and
corrupt elements in Burmese society.

At the same time, if the U.S. sets the bar too high at the outset, it will
deny itself an effective role in helping to move Burma away from
authoritarian rule and into the world community.

During this period of uncertainty, we recommend framing U.S. policy toward
Burma on the basis of changes taking place in the country, using both
engagement and sanctions to encourage reform. The Obama administration's
decision to maintain trade and investment sanctions on Burma in the
absence of meaningful change, particularly with regard to the Burmese
government's intolerance of political opposition, is correct.

Yet there are other measures that should be pursued now. The U.S. should
engage not only with Burma's leaders, but also with a wide range of groups
inside the country to encourage the dialogue necessary to bring about
national reconciliation of the military, democracy groups, and non-Burmese
nationalities.

Removal of some noneconomic sanctions that restrict official bilateral
interaction is welcome, and an even greater relaxation in communications,
through both official and unofficial channels, should be implemented.
Expanding such channels, especially during a period of potential political
change, will strengthen U.S. leverage.

To reach the Burmese people directly, the U.S. should continue to develop
and scale up assistance programs, while preserving cross-border
assistance. Assistance to nongovernmental organizations should be
expanded, and U.S. assistance also should be targeted toward small farmers
and small- and medium-size businesses.

Educational exchanges under the Fulbright and Humphrey Scholar programs
and cultural outreach activities should be increased. These programs
produce powerful agents for community development in Burma, and can
significantly improve the prospects for better governance.

U.S. policy should shift to a more robust phase if Burmese leaders begin
to relax political restrictions, institute economic reforms and advance
human rights. If there is no movement on these fronts, there will likely
be pressure in the U.S. for tightening sanctions.

If there is no recourse but to pursue stronger sanctions, the U.S. should
coordinate with others, including the European Union and the 10-member
Association of Southeast Asian Nations, to impose targeted financial and
banking measures to ensure that military leaders and their associates
cannot evade the impact of what otherwise would be less-effective
unilateral sanctions.

If a different scenario emerges, it should open the way for a much more
active U.S. role in assisting with capacity building, governance training
and international efforts to encourage economic reforms.

One priority should be to develop an appropriate mechanism for ensuring
that revenues from the sale of natural gas are properly accounted for,
repatriated and allocated to meet urgent national needs.

In adjusting its policy toward Burma, the U.S. must face reality with a
clear vision of what its foreign policy can achieve. U.S. influence in
Burma is unlikely to outweigh that of increasingly powerful Asian
neighbors. Therefore, the U.S. should make collaboration with other key
stakeholders, particularly ASEAN, the United Nations and Burma's neighbors
— including China, India and Japan — the centerpiece of its policy.

In every respect, conditions in Burma are among the direst of any country
in the world, and it will take decades, if not generations, to reverse
current downward trends and create a foundation for a sustainable and
viable democratic government and a prosperous society.

The U.S. needs to position itself to respond effectively and flexibly to
the twists and turns that a potential transition in Burma may take over
time, with an eye toward pressing the Burmese leadership to move in
positive directions.

Wesley K. Clark, a former NATO supreme commander, is a senior fellow at
UCLA's Burkle Center for International Relations. Henrietta H. Fore is a
former administrator of USAID. Both are cochairs of the Asia
Society-sponsored Task Force on U.S. Policy toward Burma/Myanmar. Suzanne
DiMaggio, director of Policy Studies at the Asia Society, is project
director. © 2010 Project Syndicate
____________________________________


May 10, Democratic Voice of Burma
Elaine Pearson: ‘Malaysia falls short’ – Joseph Allchin

Malaysia was accused last week of ‘playing volleyball’ with the lives of
six trafficked Burmese children, one as young as 10, now being held in a
Malaysian detention camp. The country’s track record on asylum seekers and
trafficking victims has drawn widespread criticism, particularly last year
following the arrest of several immigration officials on human trafficking
charges.

Elaine Pearson, deputy director of the Asia division at Human Rights Watch
(HRW), tells DVB that the situation for migrants in Malaysia remains
bleak, with the government failing to take adequate steps to improve
living conditions and stem the flow of human trafficking.

What effects will the recent crackdown in Malaysia have on the rights of
Burmese migrants in the country?

In Malaysia, unfortunately the situation for migrants is quite dire,
although there have been some improvements in terms of refugee protection.
The [UN High Commissioner for Refugees] now has access to some of the
detention camps that it didn’t have before. What we’re seeing is that
round-ups of undocumented migrants are continuing, and people are being
sent to these detention camps. Conditions in these detention camps are
very bad; in fact so bad that some people have been dying of malnutrition
and disease. And precisely because they are not deporting a lot of the
Burmese to the Thai-Malaysia border anymore the conditions are actually
over crowded.

How do you view the Malaysian response to the reclassification of Malaysia
to a Tier 3 nation by the US state department?

I think it’s a reflection that in Malaysia, Burmese migrants are extremely
vulnerable, not only to traffickers and forced labour in the country but
also to the complicity of government officials that are actually involved
in that trafficking. So Malaysia was put in Tier 3 because there was this
US senate foreign relations committee report on the trafficking of
migrants at the border. And what that report found was that actually
immigration officials are complicit in handing migrants directly over to
traffickers at the border. When they get to the border they are basically
given a choice either to pay money or else be sold onto a fishing boat or
on to a brothel if they’re a woman. So you know really we have done a lot
of interviews ourselves in Malaysia where migrants have talked about this
problem and talked about how they have had to pay really quite large sums
of money in order to return to Malaysia.

So the Malsyian government has taken some steps to address trafficking;
they now have a new trafficking law which is quite comprehensive and there
have been some moves to prosecute officials. So there have been
investigations into corrupt immigration officials in some of these cases;
however really we feel that this has to go a lot further. We want to see
convictions of the government officials that are involved in those abuses
and we also want to ensure at the same time that there are legal
opportunities for Burmese to remain in Malaysia otherwise they are all
forced into this very vulnerable situation where they are liable to be
trafficked or otherwise exploited because there aren’t enough
opportunities legally to remain in Malaysia.

Do you think that Malaysia should cease its guest worker program [where
employers legally ‘sponsor’ migrants to work] or try and assimilate
refugees instead of getting more guest workers?

Well, I think the guest worker program needs to be reformed in certain
ways so that it provides basic labour protections to workers. There are a
lot of problems in that it doesn’t cover certain sectors of work for
people from certain countries but we feel at the same time there needs to
be better refugee protection. Those who come to Malaysia in an
undocumented fashion but do have legitimate claims to refugee status; they
should be able to work in Malaysia and Malaysia should consider not only
resettling them to third countries but enabling them to stay in Malaysia
in a stable way for a longer period of time.

What in your view can nations like Malaysia, Thailand and Bangladesh do
with regards to the Rohingya?

Well HRW issued a report about the Rohingya back in the 1990s and last
year we issued another report on the Rohingya and I was very sad to say
that basically the conditions in Malaysia have not really changed. Really
the Malaysian government has to recognise that there are serious concerns
for the Rohingya’s safety inside Burma so these people do have a
legitimate claim to refugee status and we would like to see Malaysia sign
on to the refugee convention. We would also like to see other nations that
are affected to actually increase their standards of protection for people
fleeing situations of persecution.

Do you think a third nation should start taking Rohingya in as refugees?

Absolutely, we think there should be opportunities for Rohingya to
register their claims as refugees, which at the moment they experience
difficulties in doing so in Malaysia, but we also feel that the Malaysian
government should be providing refugees in Malaysia with better
protection. While there have been some improvements, there is really such
a long way to go for Malaysia to fulfil international standards. So now
you have the refugee agency actually able to go and register people in
detention centres. But Malaysia really needs to take it to the next step
of providing protection to people who are in the country.
____________________________________


May 8, The New Light of Myanmar
Union Election Commission issues Notification No. 41/2010

Nay Pyi Taw, May 7 - The Union Election Commission issued Notification No.
41/2010 today. The translation of the notification is as follows:-

The Union of Myanmar Union
Election Commission Nay Pyi Taw
Notification No. 41/2010
10th Waning of Kason, 1372 ME
7 May 2010

Permission granted to Kokang Democracy and Unity Party to register as
political party

The Union Election Commission granted permission to the Kokang Democracy
and Unity Party with its headquarters at No. B/6/137 on Dawna Street in
Region 6 of Ward 2, Lashio, Shan State to register in accord with the
Article 9 of the Political Parties Registration Law as of 7 May 2010.

The registration number of the Kokang Democracy and Unity Party is (4).

By Order,

Sd/Win Ko
Secretary
Union Election Commission


Ed, BurmaNet News