BurmaNet News, May 14, 2010

[Editor]

May 14, 2010, Issue #3962


INSIDE BURMA
DVB: Water crisis hits Rangoon
Irrawaddy: Suu Kyi criticizes NDF faction
IMNA: KNU denies the Burmese government’s bombing

ON THE BORDER
SHAN: Shan army told to withdraw its forces by Naypyitaw
Myanmar Times: Children victims of human trafficking

BUSINESS / TRADE
Xinhua: Myanmar-Thai bilateral trade hit 2.2 bln USD in three-quarters
ANI: Essar bags infrastructure construction project in Myanmar
Hindustan Times: Centre signs contract on Sittwe port work

DRUGS
Bangkok Post: Police sting nabs driver for alleged drug kingpin

ASEAN
New Straits Times: Boat tragedy hero in the dock

INTERNATIONAL
Guardian: Pressure grows for a tougher approach in Burma
DVB: UN rues Burma election monitor ban
Myanmar Times: Govt claims breakthrough in Thingyan pandal attack

OPINION / OTHER
WSJ: Book reviews - Philip Delves Broughton
Huffington Post: Oil companies sometimes lie - Matthew Smith


____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

May 14, Democratic Voice of Burma
Water crisis hits Rangoon - Yee May Aung

Dwindling water supplies to Rangoon are being exacerbated by frequent
electricity cuts in the city, with some residents now unable to pump water
to their apartments.

Burma has in recent weeks been hit by a major water crisis resulting from
a combination of abnormally hot weather and increasing damming of rivers.
The shortage has affected major towns in Sagaing, Bago and Irrawaddy
divisions, and now Rangoon is suffering.

“There is a big shortage of water in our area,” said one resident from
Pazundaung township in central Rangoon. He added that residents were being
“forced to manage [water] like oil” because the lack of water in nearby
Gyo Phyu reservoir had depleted supplies.

Rangoon has also been hit by regular electricity cuts since the annual
water festival in April. One resident in Kyauk Myaung township said that
with the reopening of factories after the festival, power cuts were
becoming more frequent.

“[The electricity] is out most of the time. It came back after midnight
yesterday and went off again around 3am, and hasn’t come back on since,”
he said. “It’s getting cut often and randomly.”

“When the electricity came back on this morning, everybody started pumping
water [up to their flats using electric pumps] at the same time,” said the
Pazundaung resident. The shortage in the township meant however that “our
building didn’t get any water”.

People are increasingly resorting to buying bottled drinking water at
around 600 kyat ($US0.60) per five litres. The average annual income in
Burma is $US220. “People are very frustrated, and now not only because of
the economy – we can’t even have enough water during the hot weather,”
said the resident.

Rangoon’s municipal, electricity, water and sanitation departments were
unavailable for comment.

Water levels on the Irrawaddy river and its largest tributary, the
Chindwin river, which flows through Sagaing division in northern Burma,
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.

A number of unofficial relief workers in Bago division who have been
helping with water donations have also complained of government
harassment, with checkpoints being set up in affected areas.

“The government officials at the [Waw township] checkpoint
were asking
every single one of them who the donation is by and what they are doing,”
said a local.

“They write down all the details collected – such as in which village a
donation was made and how many households received the donation – and are
also taking photos of people.”

____________________________________

May 14, Irrawaddy
Suu Kyi Criticizes NDF Faction – Ko Htwe

Detained National League for Democracy (NLD) icon Aung San Suu Kyi said
that the act of forming a new party by some of the NLD leaders is
incompatible with the democratic process, according to her lawyer, Nyan
Win, after meeting her on Friday.

Speaking with The Irrawaddy after his meeting, Nyan Win said, “The NLD's
decision [not to register for the election] was agreed by all members, but
there are still some who have taken matters into their own hands—something
that is not compatible with the democratic process, according to Suu Kyi.”

Some leading members of NLD, who disagreed with the party's decision to
boycott this year's general election, have founded a new political party,
named the National Democratic Force (NDF),which will contest the polls.

Dr. Than Nyein, a former political prisoner and a member of the NLD, who
is expected to lead the new party, said the NDF will be registered at the
Election Commission sometime in the middle of this month, and will be
headed by several members of the NLD.

Dr. Win Naing, Thein Nyunt, Sein Hla Oo and several others will join the
new party, he said. Another prominent NLD leader, Khin Maung Swe, will
serve as an adviser.

In 1990, when the NLD was divided on whether to contest the election, Suu
Kyi's decision to participate broke the gridlock and resulted in the NLD
gaining an unexpected landslide victory. However, the junta never
acknowledged the results.

According to Nyan Win, Suu Kyi also said that many agreements regarding
the election had been made with US Assistant Secretary of State Kurt
Campbell on Monday at a government guesthouse in Rangoon, but declined to
give details.

The NLD automatically ceased to exist at midnight on May 6—the deadline
for all existing political parties in Burma to register under the junta's
election law. In March, the party decided against registering under what
it called “unjust and unfair” election laws.
____________________________________

May 14, Independent Mon News Agency
Karen National Union denies the Burmese government’s bombing accusations -
Loa Htaw

Today the Karen National Union (KNU) has denied the Burmese government’s
numerous accusations regarding the several recent bomb blasts.

The latest accusation was on the most recent bomb blast, on May 9th, in
Three Pagoda Pass (TPP) township at a Burmese military check-point on the
Thailand-Burma border.

KNU general secretary Naw Zipporrah Sein said, “The accusations are
nonsense. We have no policy to do such things which affect people and we
never attack people.”

According to the May 12th New Light of Myanmar newspaper, the two bombers,
Aung Aung and Maung Phyu, reported that they were in fact hired by an
official from Brigade No. 6 of the KNU.

The two bombers were seriously wounded and were treated in the TPP
hospital.  Maung Phyu lost his left hand and hurt his left thigh, while
Aung Aung hurt his left flank.

A New Mon State Party official believes that the two bombers have been
detained by the Burmese military in the TPP township. They were both taken
somewhere unknown after a few hours of treatment in the hospital on the
night of the bomb blast. They both used to work for the Karen Peace Front
which surrendered to the Burmese military government in 1997.

The government has accused KNU of bombings at least three times since the
Rangoon bomb blasts in April 2010, which killed more than 10 people and
wounded over 70 during water festival. The latest accusation was on the
bombing in TPP Township.

In TPP township, there are several ethnic groups in addition to the KNU,
which have been fighting with the Burmese government for their ethnic
rights. These include the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), the Karen
Peace Front (KPF) and the New Mon State Party (NMSP).

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

May 14, Shan Herald Agency for News
Shan army told to withdraw its forces by Naypyitaw - Hseng Khio Fah

The strongest faction of the Shan State Army (SSA) ‘North’, the First
Brigade, which is still refusing to become Naypyitaw-controlled home guard
force, has been ordered to withdraw all of its forces taking positions
near motorways and the Burma Army outposts, according to sources from the
First Brigade.

The First Brigade has been preparing its forces, supplies and weapons to
defend itself against possible offensive by the Burma Army since the end
of April when two of its sister brigades: 3rd and 7th   consented to
transform as Naypyitaw run home guard force.

On 13 May, in accordance with order from Colonel Chit Oo, Deputy Commander
of the Eastern Region Command, Kunhing Area Commander sent a message to
the faction to pull out all forces and to keep regional stability until
the elections are over, said the source.

In addition, the commander also urged the faction to shun from any
activities that could create hostilities between the two sides.

But another source from Tangyan Township said the military junta itself
has yet to stop reinforcing its troops and weapons to areas surrounding
the faction’s main base at Wanhai, Kehsi Township.

“The commander said they are worried their top officials will come to see
our forces still standing defiant against them,” a senior officer from the
First Brigade told SHAN.

“But they did not mention any more about the 12 May deadline given to us
on 7 May,” he said.

On 7 May, some representative from the First Brigade and some junta
officials led by Colonel Chit Oo met in Kunhing Township, where the Shan
State Army (SSA) North’s 7th brigade is based, over the faction’s negative
response to Naypyitaw Border Guard Force (BGF).

Anyhow, the faction was given 12 May as yet another extension to
reconsider its response again and to inform its leader that some of the
military junta officials would also visit the areas surrounding the
faction’s base in Kehsi Township on 11 May.

But the faction said no one came to visit their base up to this day.

____________________________________

May 14, Myanmar Times (Volume 26, No. 522)
Media roundup: Children victims of human trafficking - Thae Thae Htwe

Twenty percent of the 302 human trafficking cases uncovered in 2009
involve children, 7-Day News reported on April 30. Acting as the minor’s
mother, human traffickers take the children into foreign countries like
China, where they are then sold. The price for one child is about US$3000.
Some Chinese people buy children to adopt them, while others are bought
and resold abroad.

If your child doesn’t arrive home from school on time, inform the
respective authorities immediately, a spokesperson from the United Nations
Inter-Agency Project (UNIAP) on Human Trafficking said.


____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE


May 14, Xinhua
Myanmar-Thai bilateral trade hit 2.2 bln USD in three-quarters

Myanmar and Thailand bilateral trade reached 2.21 billion U.S. dollars in
the first three quarters of the 2009-10 fiscal year (April- December),
according to an official report.

Myanmar's export to Thailand amounted to 1.93 billion U.S. dollars while
its import from Southeast Asian countries reached 276 million U.S.
dollars, the report showed.

In 2008-09, the two countries' bilateral trade totalled 3.05 billion U.S.
dollars, of which Myanmar's export to Thailand was valued at 2.655 billion
U.S. dollars, while its import from the region stood 398.28 million U.S.
dollars.

Thailand stood top in Myanmar's foreign trade partner line-up during the
year, followed by Singapore, China and India.

Thailand exports to Myanmar textile, shoes, marine products, rice, rubber,
jewelry, motor cars, computer and electronic accessories, while importing
from Myanmar forestry products, marine products, agricultural products and
natural gas.

Meanwhile, Thailand also takes leading role in Myanmar's foreign
investment which is followed by the United Kingdom and Singapore.

Thailand injected 7.41 billion U.S. dollars into Myanmar during the period
from 1988 to 2009, of which 81.7 percent went to electric power, while
8.33 percent and 3.1 percent in manufacturing and hotel and tourism
sectors respectively.
____________________________________

May 14, Asian News International (ANI) via oneindia.com
Essar bags infrastructure construction project in Myanmar

New Delhi - Engineering procurement and construction company Essar
Projects Limited has signed a contract with the Ministry of External
Affairs to build a multi-modal transit transport project in Myanmar, which
includes two jetties, a port and cargo barges.

The project named 'Kaladan Multi Modal Transit Transport Project' involves
construction of two jetties at Sittwe and Paletwa in Myanmar, dredging and
construction of cargo barges, as well as the construction of a 120
kilometers-long road, to facilitate cargo movement along the river
Kaladan.

The project was executed by the Central Government under an agreement
between the two countries to ease the movement of goods from India to the
northeastern states of the country.

"I am extremely delighted that today we could sign a contract with Essar,
which has emerged successful in the bidding process, I think collectively
it will be our endeavour to make sure that this project is implemented on
time," said T. S. Tirumurti, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of External
Affairs.

The contract is worth Rs 3.42 billion and is to be executed within 36 months.

Essar officials said that they might consider of sub-contracting some of
the jobs.

"We may - based on the credentials choose some sub-contractors," said V.
K. Bhatt, Vice President (Operations), Essar Projects Ltd.

The project will offer an alternate access to the North -East and
therefore is strategically important.

It would also in turn help Myanmar develop their infrastructure and port
facilities for accelerated development of the country.

____________________________________

May 14, Hindustan Times
Centre signs contract on Sittwe port work

New Delhi - After suffering time overruns, the Centre has signed a
contract with Essar Projects (India) to build a Multi-Modal Transit
Transport (MMTT) Project on Sittwe Port in Myanmar.

The project, which has suffered delays on account of slippage in
appointment of a contractor, involves construction of two jetties, a port
and cargo barges on Sittwe Port, also known as Akyub Port. The contract is
worth Rs 342 crore and is to be executed within 36 months.

'Today, I am extremely delighted that we could sign a contract with Essar
which has emerged successful in the bidding process, and I think
collectively it will be our endeavour to make sure that this project is
implemented on time,' said Joint Secretary (East) TS Tirumurti of Ministry
of External Affairs.

Essar Projects Limited signed a contract with the Ministry of External
Affairs to build a multi-modal transit transport project in Myanmar.

Kaladan Multi Modal Transit Transport Project', involves construction of
two jetties at Sittwe and Paletwa in Myanmar, dredging and construction of
cargo barges, as well as construction of a 120km road, to facilitate cargo
movement along river Kaladan.

Essar officials said that they might consider sub-contracting some of the
jobs. 'We may, based on the credentials, choose some sub-contractors,'
said VK Bhatt, vice president (operations) of Essar Projects Limited.

Officials said port at Sittwe would open landlocked, underdeveloped and
troubled NE States to international trade. India shares a 1,645-km border
with Myanmar. Published by HT Syndication with permission from Assam
Tribune. For more information on news feed please contact Sarabjit
Jagirdar at htsyndication at hindustantimes.com

____________________________________
DRUGS

May 14, Bangkok Post
Police Sting Nabs Driver for Alleged Drug Kingpin

A suspected delivery driver for an alleged drug-dealing kingpin has been
arrested in a police sting. Officers said they seized 102,600 speed pills
and three kilogrammes of crystal methamphetamine, worth nearly 40 million
baht.

Ratapol Roongrangsri, 25, was nabbed on Wednesday at Ratchadaphisek Soi 32
in Chatuchak district after a police agent contacted an alleged drug
trafficker identified as "Yai" to buy 10,000 speed pills. Mr Ratapol was
instructed to deliver the drugs to the area, Provincial Police Region 1
chief Krisada Pankongchuen said yesterday.

"Yai" was not aware of the sting. He had earlier sold 6,000 speed pills to
the police. Mr Ratapol, who delivered the drugs in the two sales, admitted
he kept more drugs at his apartment in Chatuchak and at a house in Pathum
Thani's Nong Sua district.

Police quickly moved to seize the drugs. Police also confiscated Mr
Ratapol's two mobile phones and a pickup truck. Mr Ratapol said he did not
know the real name of "Yai" but said he is Thai and lives in Burma.

Mr Ratapol told police he was a former worker at a disco club in Songkhla
and had been introduced to "Yai" and another man he referred to as "Aod".

Police said Mr Ratapol agreed to work for them by sending speed pills and
crystal methamphetamine (ice) to customers.

The drugs are transported from Chiang Rai and temporarily stored at the
house in Pathum Thani, Mr Ratapol told police.

Then, "Yai" called him to deliver drugs to customers for 50,000 baht a
trip, he said. He said he had done the job three times before his arrest.

____________________________________
ASEAN

May 14, New Straits Times (Malaysia)
Boat tragedy hero in the dock - Melissa Darlyne Chow

Georgetown - A fish breeder, who was hailed as a hero after he helped save
two dragon boat rowers earlier this year, was yesterday fined RM24,000 for
harbouring three illegal immigrants.

Yeoh Lye Pin, 61, pleaded guilty at the magistrate's court to harbouring
Myanmar nationals Soe Myint, 36, Lin, 18, and Chit Win, 27, at Kuala
Sungai Pinang at 4.30pm on April 29.

Yeoh, who wore a cream-coloured polo T-shirt and blue jeans, had
difficulty hearing the charge as he was hard of hearing. The court
interpreter had to read the charge three times in Mandarin before Yeoh
understood and pleaded guilty.

Yeoh, who owns a fish breeding farm, pleaded for leniency as he had a
family to support.

Magistrate Noor Aini Yusof fined Yeoh RM8,000 for each illegal immigrant
he harboured, or six months' jail in default. Yeoh, who was unrepresented,
paid the fine.

The Myanmar nationals pleaded guilty to entering the country illegally and
were sentenced to four months' jail each. Soe Myint and Lin were also
ordered to be whipped once.

The charge was read to them by a Myanmar interpreter.

Yeoh was lauded for rescuing two dragon boat rowers from Chung Ling High
School in a tragedy that took the lives of a teacher and five students in
January at the waters off Gat Lebuh Macallum.

He and Indonesian shipworker Saiful Azhar, 49, were rewarded for together
saving nine of the 18 rowers.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

May 14, The Guardian
Pressure grows for a tougher approach in Burma - but does the west care
enough? – Simon Tisdall

Barack Obama’s policy of "pragmatic engagement" with the Burmese military
junta is in danger of falling apart as the generals press ahead with plans
for elections later this year from which the country's main opposition
party, the National League for Democracy, has been effectively excluded.
Pressure is now growing for a tougher approach - though it's unclear what,
if anything, can make the regime change its mind.

Speaking following a visit to Burma last week, Kurt Campbell, the US
assistant secretary of state, expressed Washington's "profound
disappointment" at the lack of progress there. The junta had ignored
proposals for a national dialogue involving all political and ethnic
groups and was instead moving ahead unilaterally with its poll plans, he
said.

"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," Campbell said. A date has not yet been announced for the
polls.

Campbell was sharply critical of the junta's treatment of an estimated
2,100 political prisoners and its continuing human rights abuses,
including army attacks on ethnic minority groups. In March a report by the
UN special rapporteur on human rights said the systematic attacks could
constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity and called for a
judicial investigation.

Washington's primary concern may not be human rights at all, but the
junta's suspected arms trade with North Korea and reports that the two
countries may be co-operating on nuclear weapons-related projects. After
North Korea conducted a nuclear test last year, the UN security council
passed resolution 1874 banning weapons trading with Pyongyang. Campbell
hinted at unspecified, unilateral US action if the regime did not
co-operate.

Criticism of the generals' election plans, and the detention of the NLD
leader Aung San Suu Kyi (who met briefly with Campbell), has also been
voiced by Britain, which backs a war crimes inquiry, by the EU, and in
Asean (the Association of South-East Asian Nations). Last month EU foreign
ministers renewed sanctions on the regime. .

But the criticism has been ignored by the junta, which continues to enjoy
diplomatic contacts and unimpeded trade with some neighbouring countries,
notably China - a big customer for its timber and other natural resources.
State media reported this week that an election commission official, Thein
Soe, told Campbell that international election observers would not be
allowed in. "The nation has a lot of experience with elections. We do not
need election watchdogs to come here," he said.

In a further sign of fraying American patience, a bipartisan coalition in
the US House of Representatives called this week for a "tougher and more
robust application of sanctions on Burma" and urged the Obama
administration to back an international war crimes inquiry.

The de facto banning and forced dissolution of the NLD, which won Burma's
last free vote in 1990, has split the opposition - as the generals
doubtless intended. A breakaway NLD faction, the National Democratic
Force, has said it will contest the elections. Another four of the
existing 10 parties have also applied for permission to run. One of them,
the Union Solidarity and Development Association, has been promoted on
state-controlled television, raising suspicions that is has been co-opted.

Htet Aung of Irrawaddy magazine, writing in Asia Sentinel, suggested the
NLD had made a "strategic error" in refusing to comply with new electoral
rules, arguing that it could have forced change from within the new
approved parliamentary structure. But analyst Frida Ghitis, writing in
World Politics Review, said the junta had set a trap for the NLD. Its
decision to pull out marked "another defeat" for Obama's policy of
engaging rogue regimes, she said.

Mark Farmaner, of Burma Campaign UK, said US policy was not working but
insisted that effective action to influence the junta's behaviour for the
better was still possible. "The US will not give up yet but clearly after
two visits (by Campbell) since last September, engagement with the regime
has produced no results at all," Farmaner said. The US should drop its
bilateral approach and join forces with other interested parties - the UN,
the EU, and Asean - in agreeing more targeted sanctions, he said.

"The European Union could do much more, so could the US," Farmaner said.
But with Gordon Brown and his wife Sarah, forceful champions of Burmese
democracy, out of office, the question, as always with Burma, is whether
anyone among the western governments cares enough to try.

____________________________________

May 14, Democratic Voice of Burma
UN rues Burma election monitor ban – Francis Wade

The UN will continue to encourage the Burmese junta to open its borders to
foreign election observers later this year “to inspire confidence” in the
highly controversial polls.

Spokesperson Martin Nesirky also defended in a press conference yesterday
the UN’s silence on the decision by the National League for Democracy
(NLD) party to boycott the elections as a marker of respect for parties to
“take their own decisions”.

The decision has led to the dissolution of the NLD, which until 6 May had
been Burma’s main opposition party and the key political threat to the
military government.

Recent murmurings from the Burmese junta appear to suggest that foreign
election observers will not be allowed to monitor the elections. Thein
Soe, the head of the Election Commission, said on Tuesday that “the nation
has a lot of experience with elections. We do not need election watchdogs
to come here.”

Although no official ban has been introduced, it is the second time a
senior minister has made such comments: during an Armed Forces Day parade
in March, junta chief Than Shwe said that during fragile transition
periods when “countries with greater experience usually interfere and take
advantage for their own interests
 it is an absolute necessity to avoid
relying on external powers.”

Little is known about the members of the Election Commission, bar its
chief Thein Soe, who was vice chief justice of Burma’s supreme court and
former military judge advocate general. Burma analyst Larry Jagan told DVB
recently that the rest is made up of former military officers, judges,
professors and a retired ambassador.

In a blunt statement yesterday by Philippines’ foreign secretary Alberto
Romulo, he  questioned whether there was really any point in sending
monitors to Burma’s first elections in 20 years.

“In the first place that election is fraudulent and a farce so why bother
[sending monitors]? It’s a game, like children playing games,” he told AP,
adding it was his personal opinion, likely due to a policy of
non-interference by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
bloc of which both Philippines and Burma are members.

____________________________________

May 14, Myanmar Times (Volume 26, No. 522)
Govt claims breakthrough in Thingyan pandal attack - Kyaw Thu and Soe Than
Lynn

The Myanmar Police Force announced last week it had arrested one person in
connection with the water festival bombing in Yangon that killed 10 people
and claimed those responsible were motivated by a desire to “dissolve the
2010 elections”.

Police will coordinate with Interpol and neighbouring countries to bring
four other offenders to justice, police chief Brigadier General Khin Yi
said at a press conference at the Myanmar Police Force Headquarters in Nay
Pyi Taw on May 6.

Brig Gen Khin Yi said four “terrorist murderers” from a group known as the
Vigorous Burmese Students Warriors (VBSW) carried out the bombing. The
attack was masterminded by a fifth member of the group, Ye Thiha, who was
responsible for the planning of 19 other bombings carried out in Myanmar
between 2004 and 2008, Brig Gen Khin Yi told reporters, officials and
diplomats.

“We managed to apprehend Phyo Wai Aung, who was one of the offenders,”
Brig Gen Khin Yi said.

The other suspected bombers – Thura Zaw, Aung Gyi and Myo Aye – have since
fled the country, he said.
Myanmar police are now cooperating with police forces in other ASEAN
countries to capture the fugitives, and diplomatic channels are also being
used.

“As we are a member of Interpol, we are cooperating with them to issue a
red notice [instructing other countries] to arrest the offenders,” he
said.

The bombers were motivated by a desire to “disrupt peace and tranquillity
of our country, instil fear and unrest among the general public and
eventually to dissolve the 2010 elections”, Brig Gen Khin Yi said, adding
that there were other “actors behind the scene” also trying to “demolish
the 2010 elections”.

“We find that the VBSW operates under guidance by All Burma Students
Democratic Front who is in turn controlled by the Democratic Alliance of
Burma. The godfather of Democratic Alliance of Burma happens to be the
National Coalition of the Union of Burma 
 [which] is chaired by a Karen
National Union (KNU) representative,” he said.

Brig Gen Khin Yi said at a December 30-January 5 “roundtable meeting” in
northern Thailand, discussions between the groups “centred on launching
surprise attacks on government military camps, invading border towns
before 2010 elections and finding ways and means to dissolve 2010
elections”.

“KNU is found to be the leading organisation in setting up meeting of this
nature,” he concluded.

Brig Gen Khin Yi said the VBSW was also responsible for seizing the
Myanmar embassy in Bangkok in October 1990 and another attack on the Raj
Puri Hospital in Thailand.

At the press conference, police also revealed how the offenders allegedly
carried out the bombings, which occurred in front of the X2O pandal beside
Kandawgyi Lake. Eight people died and 170 more were wounded in the initial
blast but two of the injured later died in hospital.

Brig General Khin Yi said the attackers threw three grenades into the
crowd and had also rigged a bomb – 340 grams of C4 plastic explosive was
later found in a Myanmar Beer can – that was to be detonated by phone
shortly after the grenade attack.

“The bomb did not get detonated due to reasons unknown. If the bomb was
exploded, additional casualty and injury of the innocent people who were
relieving the wounded would be occurred,” he said.

“This is the first time that such a 
very high tech method of exploding
bombs 
 is used here in Myanmar.”
Brig General Khi Yi said the attack in Yangon was not connected with an
April 17 bombing at the Myitsone hydropower project in Kachin State.

“Myitsone bomb explosion is a different case,” he said.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

May 14, Wall Street Journal (Books)
The Long Flight From Tyranny – Philip Delves Broughton

Firsthand accounts of Burma's refugees, living difficult half-lives on a
dangerous borderland

Reading about modern Burma can be an ordeal—like a journey into the abyss.
The situation in this godforsaken country is so dire—and the result of
such dunderheaded thuggery—that you wonder why you do it to yourself. On
the upside, at least you're not living there.

The many refugees who live along the Thai-Burma border—would-be escapees
from the miltary-socialist regime that has ruled in Burma since
1962—aren't quite living there either. But given their seemingly endless
state of near statelessness, they may as well be. The refugees are victims
of the Burmese government's war on political opponents and on ethnic
groups within the country, notably the Karen, who have been fighting for
autonomy ever since Burma was granted independence from Britain in 1948.

In June 2009, civilians take shelter along the Moei River separating
Thailand and Burma as they try to escape the fighting between the Burmese
army and Karen guerrillas.
The Karen conflict has waxed and waned in intensity over the years, but
the past couple of decades have been especially grim. The Burmese military
has sought to purge the country of Karen using every debased tool at their
disposal, from burning down villages to committing systematic rape.

As Mac McLelland writes in "For Us Surrender Is Out of the Question" (Soft
Skull Press, 388 pages, $15.95), a sophistic argument continues over
whether the government's purge constitutes genocide. "Or as my father put
it when I tried to impress upon him the seriousness of the situation in
Burma, 'but how does it compare to Sudan?' “She makes a convincing case
that Burma and Sudan are not so far apart on the horror scale.

But Ms. McLelland has done more than write another broad catalog of
misery. She has a tale to tell. She arrived in a Burmese refugee camp in
northern Thailand in 2006 to teach English for a few weeks. A profane
young bisexual from Ohio, she finds herself living with a group of prim,
trim Karen men who spend their days monitoring Burmese atrocities and
their nights competing in push-up contests. Quickly she discovers why the
Far Eastern Economic Review dubbed the Karen "the world's most pleasant
and civilized guerrilla group."

It is a fantastic clash of cultures, which Ms. McLelland describes with
saucy relish. The men are initially resistant to her exuberance and warmth
and then fascinated by it. She is in turn fascinated by their combination
of naïveté and experience. They may not know about French
kissing—preferring a form of kissing that involves a rub of the nose
followed by a sharp sniff—but they can navigate their way through a jungle
to evade the murderous Burmese army. Her writing is so vivid that you can
almost smell the frying pork, the cigarettes and, alas, the overflowing
latrines.

Ms. McLelland weaves into her tale a detailed, irreverent modern history
of Burma that scythes through many of the arguments dictating the policy
of other countries toward the Burmese government. Sanctions, she writes,
may be well-intentioned, but they produce all kinds of unintended effects,
such as forcing Burmese textile workers out of their jobs and into the sex
industry. And while the West bleats, Asian countries—notably China,
Singapore and South Korea—are more than happy to do business with Burma.
As long as there is money to be made in Burma, she says, "there's unlikely
to be a cohesive or constructive policy of international financial
disengagement."

Ms. McLelland credits Condoleezza Rice who, as secretary of state, in 2006
opened the door for more Karen to leave the squalid camps in Thailand and
emigrate to the U.S. They are grateful for the chance at a new life, Ms.
McLelland notes; but they are also struggling to accept that their dream
of returning home to an independent Karen state is fading.

Zoya Phan is a Karen who was born in a jungle village in 1980 but fled as
a child to the Thai border camps. Her mother was a guerrilla soldier and
her father a pro-democracy activist who was murdered at his home in
Thailand in 2008, allegedly by the Burmese government. Ms. Phan was
fortunate to receive an Open Society Institute scholarship that saved her
from the refugee camps and allowed her to study in Bangkok and later
England, where she now lives.

"Undaunted" (Free Press, 284 pages, $26) is an unremittingly wretched
memoir of how Ms. Phan's family was chased from its home by the Burmese
army into the refugee camps, where thousands of people have spent years
with no way out, prey to the weather, violent guards and the constant fear
of Burmese reprisals. If you have ever doubted the value of Western aid to
such refugees, this book will change your mind. When everything was
darkest for Ms. Phan, it was help from the West that gave her hope. As she
writes: "I am one of the lucky ones. I am lucky I am still alive. I am
lucky I haven't been raped. I am lucky that I am not still in a refugee
camp with no work, no freedom. . . . I don't want you to feel sorry for
me, I want you to feel angry, and I want you to do something about it."

Emma Larkin's "Everything Is Broken" (Penguin Press, 271 pages, $25.95)
follows her 2005 book, "Finding George Orwell in Burma," an account of her
journey through modern Burma searching for traces of Orwell's time there
as a policeman in the 1920s. It's hard to find any shafts of light in this
one. An American journalist who writes under a pseudonym, she returned to
Burma in 2008 after the cyclone Nargis had killed nearly 140,000 people
and devastated swaths of the country. She entered Burma as a tourist but
managed to move from village to village meeting victims of the hurricane
and of the government's inept response. Given how difficult it was for
foreign governments and aid groups to penetrate Burma at the time, Ms.
Larkin pulls off a formidable piece of reporting. She also does a good job
of decoding the generals who run Burma, who seem driven by paranoia,
mysticism and a firm belief in the jackboot as a cure-all.

Karen Connelly's "Burmese Lessons" (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, 382 pages,
$27.95) is a memoir of Ms. Connelly's affair with a Burmese resistant whom
she meets on a reporting assignment to the Thai border in the mid-1990s.
"Burmese Lessons" (which follows a superb novel by Ms. Connelly called
"The Lizard Cage," about Burma's political prisoners) is a polished,
literary memoir that includes, along the way, an account Burma's turbulent
history. The book has a bit too much of the conscience-stricken Westerner
swooning over the dark-skinned rebel, but Ms. Connelly is a hugely
engaging writer. Burma itself—as Ms. Connelly well knows—is rather more
complicated than one difficult love affair.

Mr. Delves Broughton is the author of "Ahead of the Curve: Two Years at
Harvard Business School."

____________________________________


May 14, Huffington Post
News Flash: Oil Companies Sometimes Lie - Matthew Smith

As America's environmental catastrophe continues to surface in the
oil-slicked Gulf of Mexico, critics of the petroleum industry are
rightfully coming out of the woodwork. Whether it's shoddy safety records,
toxic pollution, or fueling conflict and corruption, oil companies have
unarguably contributed to some of the most serious and damaging corporate
activities around the globe.

Yet there is another inconvenient truth to the unseemly resume of the oil
giants: Oil companies sometimes lie.

In Burma (Myanmar), over the last twenty years, Chevron, Total, and the
Thai company PTTEP -- operators of the forced labor plagued Yadana natural
gas pipeline -- have made hundreds of millions, if not billions, in
undisclosed payments to the ruling military junta, financing an
undemocratic band of generals accused of Crimes Against Humanity. The
overall gas profits, estimated at nearly $5 billion dollars from 2000-2008
alone, have provided the Burmese military regime a convenient shield from
domestic democratic pressures, such as the 2007 Saffron Revolution, a
peaceful but brutally suppressed monk-led uprising that was sparked in
part by a dramatic rise in domestic gas prices. Chevron, Total, and PTTEP
have in effect undermined U.S. foreign policy toward Burma - a policy
intended to promote democracy and human rights, not callous profiteering
and overt repression.

But this is old news. A more recent revelation is that the companies have
lied about their ability to practice revenue transparency in Burma. Both
Chevron and Total have privately told shareholders they are contractually
unable to be transparent in their payments to the junta. Their claim is
simply untrue.

In 2004, during the landmark lawsuit brought by Burmese villagers in U.S.
courts against Unocal Corporation (now Chevron) for complicity in forced
labor, torture, and killings along the Yadana pipeline, the companies'
contracts with the Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE) became public
documents. In no way do they restrict Chevron, Total, or PTTEP from
disclosing their payments to the junta - past, present, and future.

Total has privately claimed the contrary for years. Multiple shareholders
have told EarthRights International that the company has claimed their
contracts with the junta are confidential, and the company has further
claimed that contractual clauses prevent them from disclosing payments to
the Burmese state.

Even more recent is new information we obtained suggesting Total's partner
Chevron has likewise lied to its shareholders. A few days ago, I received
some interesting communications from a longtime Chevron shareholder - the
manager of an investment firm - indicating that the American oil giant,
which recently reported its largest profit increase in a decade, not only
lied to him regarding the company's revenue opacity in Burma, but also to
several investment firms, including the one he represents, and to two of
America's largest labor unions.

Citing phone calls with Chevron executives, this shareholder and others
recall that Chevron rejected requests to be transparent in Burma, claiming
their contract with the junta prevented disclosure of any payment
information to anyone, including the company's own investors. Like Total,
the company also claimed their contracts could not be shared.

The truth is that their contracts are available for the world to see, and
have been for six years. Last week, EarthRights International (ERI)
published the documents on its website. According to ERI's Legal Director
Marco Simons, "while these contracts do require the partners to keep
confidential information that they have acquired from MOGE, nothing in
them suggests that payments to the regime would qualify as confidential
information, or even that the contracts themselves need to be kept
confidential."

In other words, Chevron and Total lied.

Last month, we called on these companies to step forward and do the right
thing by disclosing their payments to the Burmese junta. I traveled to
Bangkok with Naing Htoo from EarthRights International and Wong Aung from
the Shwe Gas Movement to launch an initiative urging the companies to
become the first oil companies in Burma to practice revenue transparency.
With the stalwart backing of an international group of over 160
organizations and individuals, we called on the companies to publish over
18 years of "taxes, fees, royalties, bonuses, and social benefits" paid to
the Burmese junta, which has ruled the country in various iterations for
nearly 50 years.

The positive development outcomes associated with revenue transparency in
the extractive industries are clear. Research indicates that developing
states relying on gas and oil revenues are less accountable to their
citizens politically and economically, which in turn fuels
authoritarianism. Revenue transparency, on the other hand, promotes an
open society. According to UCLA political scientist Michael Ross, "in too
many countries, dictators use natural resource wealth to keep themselves
in power. Revenue secrecy makes this possible. Revenue transparency can
help change it."

Transparency can also help with corruption control, which is particularly
important in Burma, a country recently ranked by Transparency
International as the third most corrupt in the world, behind Afghanistan
and Somalia.

But the bottom line is that the people of Burma have a right to know what
Chevron, Total, and PTTEP have paid the state for public resources.

Far from a marginalized effort, this campaign has notable backers,
including Mary Robinson, the first woman President of Ireland, former U.N.
High Commissioner for Human Rights, and veritable leader in the field of
business and human rights. It's also backed by Kerry Kennedy, the founder
of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights and longtime
advocate of speaking truth to power; and Kjell Magne Bondevik, the
two-time Prime Minister of oil-rich Norway and founding president of the
Oslo Center for Peace and Human Rights. Over 65 organizations from Burma
also back the effort, representing every major ethnic group in the diverse
country.

Documentation of Chevron and Total's dishonesty and lack of revenue
transparency in Burma is markedly different than the common criticisms
waged against the companies. They usually boil under the spotlight for
their complicity in forced labor, killings, and other abuses committed by
the Burmese Tatmadaw (Army) guarding their 40-mile long gas pipeline to
Thailand, abuses we continue to document today. While revenue transparency
will in no way absolve the companies of their responsibility for these
ongoing abuses, it will be a critical step in the right direction.

Coincidentally, they already champion transparency. Both Chevron and Total
have in general acknowledged the potential for positive development
outcomes through revenue transparency, and both companies in effect
recognize that revenue secrecy is increasingly indefensible. Why else
would they cite fabricated contractual restrictions as obstacles to
transparency, rather than simply refuse in principle to practice it? In
other words, their lies are the tribute vice pays to virtue.

The yes or no question remains: will Total, Chevron, and PTTEP do
something positive for Burma and disclose details of their last 18 years
of payments to the junta?

Matthew Smith is a Senior Consultant, EarthRights International