BurmaNet News, June 5 -7, 2010

[Editor]

June 5 – 7, 2010, Issue #3977

INSIDE BURMA
Irrawaddy: Oppositions lament nuclear program effort
China People's Daily: Yangon faces reduced power supply as old offshore
gas pipeline leaks again

BUSINESS / TRADE
AFP: ILO targets Myanmar's military over forced labour
Kachin News Group: China plundering natural resources in Burma
DVB: Burma economy in ‘artificial deficit’

ASEAN
AFP: Asean: No clear sign Myanmar wants help with vote

REGIONAL
DVB: Burmese migrants riot in Malaysian camp
Kaladan Press: Rohingya asylum seekers face food crisis in Cambodia
My Paper (Singapore): Myanmar rebuts nuclear talk

INTERNATIONAL
RFA: Weapons trump development
Reuters: IAEA Chief says looking into Myanmar nuclear report

OPINION / OTHER
Stanford Review (US): Burma and nuclear weapons? – Stephen Herzog
The Walrus (Canada): Home free – Karen Connelly
Irrawaddy: Burma's nuke ambitions an opportunity for Obama – Htet Aung
New Light of Myanmar: Perspectives: China-Myanmar relations open new page


____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

June 7, Irrawaddy
Oppositions lament nuclear program effort – Saw Yan Naing

The Burmese junta's apparent intent to develop a nuclear weapons program
is a tragic waste of badly needed money which should be used for the
welfare of the people, say opposition political leaders.

Several opposition politicians, ethnic leaders, and rebel army leaders
said on Monday the military government should use the national budget for
education, health, economic and other developmental programs instead of
prioritizing a nuclear weapons program when, in fact, the country is under
no immediate or long-term threat.

This satellite image shows the Defense Services Technological Academy in
Pyin Oo Lwin, or Maymyo, Burma. A high-level defector from Burma's armed
forces says the ruling junta is attempting to develop a nuclear bomb with
the help of North Korea. (Source: DVB)
Critics said large sums of income earned from the sale of natural
resources should be shared with the people for the benefit of the country.

The comments came after new evidence surfaced about the government's
nuclear ambitions, disclosed by a Burmese missile expert, Maj Sai Thein
Win, who defected.

Rangoon-based veteran politician Chan Htun, who served as the Burmese
ambassador to China, said that the generals are strengthening the armed
forces because they don't want to be inferior to powerful nations.

Chan Htun said, however, “It isn't enough to strengthen the military
alone. The livelihood of civilians also need to be improved. Social and
economic areas need to be improved.”

Burma's military regime is infamous for spending a large percentage of its
national budget on the military, rather than on education, health and
other public services. According to Burma military experts, 40 to 60
percent of the national budget is allocated to the military.

In contrast, 0.4 percent of the budget is spent on healthcare, while 0.5
percent is spent on education, according to a report released in 2007 by
the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a think-tank based in
London.

Aye Thar Aung, an Arakanese politician who is chair of the Arakan League
for Democracy, said, “To hold power firmly, Burmese generals think that it
will be safer for them if they have nuclear weapons.”

However, he said there is no threat of invasion from neighboring countries
or powerful nations.

Sai Lao Hseng, a spokesperson for the Shan State Army–South, an ethnic
rebel group, said developing a nuclear program only wastes badly need
funds that come mainly from the sale of natural resources.

“I was shocked and wondered why they wanted nuclear weapons while many
people and ethnic groups live in poverty,” he said. “They can't use these
weapons to attack ethic rebels. It will only be a threat to the regional
and international community.”

The government's annual budget stems mostly from the sale of natural gas,
logging, mining and hydro-electric power. Rice export is also a main
source of national income.

According to a study by the Washington-based United States Institute of
Peace, Burma's export earnings from the energy sector will double in the
next five years, due mainly to oil and gas transit pipelines now being
built across Burma to China's Yunnan Province.

The institute said the calculation is based on energy exports—mostly
gas—accounting for at least 45 percent of the $6.6 billion earnings in
2008.

A retired Mon army chief, Nai Kao Rot, who is a former colonel in the New
Mon State Party said, “We are unhappy...that they don't share the benefits
with ethnic people, but only strengthen their military.”

Zipporah Sein, the general-secretary of the Karen National Union, said,
“We believe that if Burma really has nuclear ambitions, it will be a
threat to the international community. The nuclear program is meant to
entrench the Burmese junta in power, and will be of no benefit to the
people.”

____________________________________

June 7, China People's Daily
Yangon faces reduced power supply as old offshore gas pipeline leaks again

Myanmar's former capital city of Yangon is now facing abnormal reduced
electric power supply as an old pipeline that carries natural gas from the
Mottama offshore gas field to drive power plants in the city leaked again
over last week, the local Weekly Eleven News reported Monday.

The shortage of power intensified as the leakage occurred before a new
24-inch alternative gas pipeline was nearing completion and not ready yet
to distribute gas to the commercial city from Insein township's Ywama
where gas control and distribution station is based, the Yangon City
Electricity Supplying Board was quoted as saying.

Power supply to private enterprises in Yangon was temporarily stopped in
mid-May to divert some of the electricity for Yangon residents' home use
as part of the authorities' provisional measures to ease power shortage in
Yangon.

However, the temporary measures of suspending power supply to the small
industrial enterprises were resumed in the last week of May except
industrial zones.

Myanmar gets a total of 660 megawatts (mw) produced from hydropower and
gas power, of which only 330 mw or 50 percent are supplied to Yangon which
actually needs 660 mw, according to the report.

The serious shortage of power has prolonged for over three months,
affecting the daily life of Yangon residents.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

June 6, Agence France Presse
ILO targets Myanmar's military over forced labour

Geneva – International labour experts warned on Sunday that Myanmar's
military is still resorting to forced labour despite signs of progress
with civilian local authorities.

An International Labour Organisation (ILO) committee backed calls for the
release of six people who have been imprisoned for up to 18 months after
they sought the help of the agency's office in the country, and renewed
criticism of Myanmar's military, ILO officials said.

"There is an indication that the use of forced labour systematically by
civilian authorities in some areas is reducing," Steve Marshall, liaison
officer for the UN labour agency in Myanmar, told AFP.

"The other side is there is no evidence of any change in attitude to the
use of forced labour by the military," he added.

The 183-nation ILO's committee on standards has assessed Myanmar's record
with forced labour annually since an inquiry concluded that the practice
was widespread and systematic there.

It met on Saturday but its conclusions were only due to be published on
Monday.

In 2007, Myanmar's military junta bowed to pressure from the UN labour
agency and allowed an official based in the capital, Yangon, to deal with
complaints from victims.

Marshall, who took part in the meeting in Geneva, indicated that the
committee upheld his assessments and reiterated calls for changes to parts
of Myanmar's constitution and laws that could condone forced labour.

It also noted that official efforts in the country to raise awareness to
help prevent the practice were gaining pace.

"There has been a lot of awareness raising and education, and a lot of
seminars. Credit was given that that is new," Marshall said.

"However, the committee feels that there's a lot more work to be done in
the area, particularly because you're in an environment where there's
military rule."

Marshall found a pattern of forced labour caused by a lack of proper
funding for projects demanded from rural authorities.

But the bulk of the problem, he cautioned, involved adults and youngsters
pressed into working for the army.

____________________________________

June 7, Kachin News Group
China plundering natural resources in Burma

China was variously described as plunderer and arch destroyer of Burma’s
natural resources on the 38th World Environment Day today, by local people
and environmental activists.

Mindless logging and rampant mining in northern Burma by China for over
two decades has led to widespread deforestation, pollution of rivers and
land with Mercury used in gold mining. There is now varied ecological
dysfunction that the country has to contend with.
060510-timber

Chinese trucks loading with timber from Kachin State headed to the China
border. Photo: Kachin News Group.

Since 1988, China has been the only super power ally of the natural
resource-rich military-run Burma. It is the only country authorized to
access these resources by the Burmese military junta.

All natural resources in Kachin State have been controlled by Chinese
companies. Besides, all wild animals in the state have been exported to
China as food and traditional medicine since a ceasefire agreement was
signed between the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) and the junta in
1994.

The Kachin state-produced natural resources like the world-class and
famous Hpakant jade, timber, gold mines and other mineral mines like
Molybdenum and Graphite are controlled by Chinese firms.

According to businessmen on the Sino-Burma border, there are no hardwood
and teak, east and west of Irrawaddy River in Kachin State because of
rampant felling for over a decade. Only small timber is left near the
Indo-Burma border in western Kachin State.

Since 2006, the junta-backed Yuzana Company headed by Chinese-Burmese U
Htay Myint seized over 200,000 acres of land in Hukawng Valley from native
Kachins. It swept clean natural forests for crops and felled trees for
export.

Timber in Hukawng Valley is mainly logged for export by two companies
backed by the junta--- Htoo Company owned by Burmese business tycoon Tay
Za or Teza, the son-in-law of junta supremo Snr-Gen Than Shwe and Yuzana
Company.

Timber traders on the border say, hundreds of thousands of tons of logs
were damaged in the logging forests in Kachin State without being brought
to the border timber camps given the extra demands for bribe by local
Burmese military units.

Rampant gold mining is also taking its toll on rivers, paddy fields and
forests in the valley, destroying and polluting the paddy fields, forests
and rivers.  The Chinese-sponsored Sea Sun Stars Company is mainly
involved in gold mining activities.

Hukawng Valley was dubbed the world’s largest tiger sanctuary in 2004 by
the US-based Wildlife Conservative Society (WCS) but, while the name has
stuck Hugawng tigers are endangered given the widespread deforestation and
gold mining activities.

Now, Chinese gold mining activities are on in other places around Kachin
State such as the Irrawaddy River, Mali Hka River, N’Mai Hka River, Puta-O
district, Waingmaw district, Myitkyina district and Bhamo district.

Chinese companies are also secretly mining Molybdenum, lead and graphite
in Bhamo district and Waingmaw Township, near the border with China’s
Yunnan province for several years now.

China imports wild animals including mammals, birds and reptiles such as
elephants, tigers, bears, monkeys, wild buffaloes, tortoises, different
birds including falcons and parrots, rhinos, crocodiles, elks, deer and
snakes. All these are now in the endangered species list in Kachin State,
said local environmentalists.

Since 2006, China’s state-owned China Power Investment Corporation (CPI)
is constructing seven hydropower projects in Irrawaddy River’s confluence
called Myitsone, Mali Hka River and N’Mai Hka River in Kachin State. It
will generate over 20,000 MW of electricity to be sold to China.

Since 2007 native Kachins and environmentalists have urged that the
Myitsone dam project be halted as it poses risk of social and
environmental disaster. However the pleas have been ignored by the
authorities.

Many people and environmentalists feel China is being hypocritical for it
regulates strictly domestic environmental protection laws but is eager to
plunder all the natural resources of the political pariah state of Burma.

Sources close to Chinese authorities on the border said, China’s economic
policy vis-a-vis military-ruled Burma entails “Grab economic benefits as
much as possible”. However, it wants its citizens in Burma to come back
home because of the fear of civil war.

Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao visited Burma on June 2 and 3 and
reaffirmed the ties between the two countries. He discussed energy
issues-- oil pipeline from the coast of Rakhine (Arakan) state and
hydropower projects in Kachin State.

____________________________________

June 5, Democratic Voice of Burma
Burma economy in ‘artificial deficit’ – Joseph Allchin

Gas revenues being banked at the official exchange rate in Burma are
causing an artificial deficit, when in fact there should be a 15 percent
fiscal surplus, a prominent economist on Burma has said.

A “fresh look” at data of Burma’s economy is “worse than I had long
thought, and the regime’s culpability so much worse,” said Sean Turnell,
from the Sydney-based Burma Economic Watch (BEW), who released the
‘Dissecting the Data’ report on Burma.

He believes the government is fudging the economic figures: “I had a look
at how the regime is recording these earnings from the gas in the public
accounts and what is revealed when you look into it is that Burma’s fiscal
deficit is artificial,” he said.

“[It’s an] an artifice of the regime itself; if you brought those [gas]
revenues into the public account at the proper exchange rate, what is
currently a fiscal deficit of about four percent of GDP turns into a
fiscal surplus of around 15 percent of GDP.”
The report notes that in 2008/09, official figures showed a fiscal deficit
of around 3.5 percent, adding that this was not extraordinary given the
global recession. This was added to by a deficit of 1.9 percent from
Burma’s state-owned enterprises, representing obviously poor management,
particularly when one thinks of the gas revenues earned by the Myanmar Oil
and Gas Enterprise (MOGE).

MOGE also uses the official exchange rate of six kyat to the dollar, but
the money is “rendered into the accounts at the unofficial [but realistic]
exchange rate of around 1000 kyat to the dollar, then these earnings
[5,270 billion kyat instead of 24.7 billion kyat] would have an
extraordinary impact.”

He added that “those gas revenues are kept offshore where they are used
for all sorts of things and, I dare say, as per recent reports by you guys
suggest on nuclear activities and so on”.

The report also once again highlighted the junta’s questionable response
to cyclone Nargis reconstruction: “The amount of spending on post-Nargis
reconstruction was a paltry figure of around $US85 million spent by the
government, when the Tripartite Core Group [UN, ASEAN and Burmese
government] estimated that $US600 million was required. They would earn
more than this every single month from the gas earnings, which really
illustrates nicely their priorities.”

He also indicated that Burma’s supposed shift to a ‘market economy’ is a
fiction, given that “domestic capital is a mere 15 percent so the state
controls 85 percent of the capital. [And] when you compare it to Laos or
Cambodia,” the opposite is true,.

There is also an apparent “famine” of credit in the country which is
particularly destructive to the agricultural sector, which provides for 70
percent of the population and earned 50 percent of GDP. The sector only
received 0.4 percent of the credit created, whilst the overall credit of
the private sector has been in steady decline from 19 percent in 2004/05
to 15 percent in 2008/09.

The mismanagement of the economy then leads to massive government
borrowing from the central bank. “Persistent annual double-digit
percentage increases in central bank advances to the State across the last
decade (including an extraordinary 21.8 percent growth in the incomplete
2008/09 financial year),” the report says.

This in turn is the “primary driver of Burma’s high inflation rates
[easily the highest in the region], which have seldom been under 25
percent in the last decade”.

The analysis that Turnell presents seems to confirm a complete lack of
foresight or people-orientated planning, as privatization continues apace
with the recent selling of the national library, and real doubt about
Burma’s ability to develop alongside its Asian neighbours is apparent.
Even more worrying however is Turnell’s belief that government policy is
“actively destructive of Burma’s prospects”.

____________________________________
ASEAN

June 5, Agence France-Presse
ASEAN: No clear sign Myanmar wants help with vote

HO CHI MINH CITY-- Myanmar has given no clear signs that it would welcome
regional help with its elections expected later this year, its Southeast
Asian neighbors said on Sunday.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the European Union
have urged Myanmar to ensure the elections are "credible and transparent".

ASEAN secretary general Surin Pitsuwan told reporters on the sidelines of
the World Economic Forum on East Asia: "We don't have any clear signal
that member states of ASEAN will be asked to help but the offer is on the
table."

Surin said in Madrid late last month that the election "won't be perfect"
but would be the start of a process that could lead to real democracy.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

State media in military-ruled Myanmar reported last month that the country
has no need for foreign observers to monitor its first elections in two
decades, despite international concerns that the polls will lack
legitimacy.

The National League for Democracy (NLD) of detained democracy icon Aung
San Suu Kyi has been forcibly dissolved under widely criticized laws
governing the elections.

The NLD refused to meet a May 6 deadline to re-register as a party -- a
move that would have forced it to expel its own leader -- and boycotted
the vote.

Suu Kyi, a Nobel peace laureate, has been held in detention for 14 of the
past 20 years.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

June 7, Democratic Voice of Burma
Burmese migrants riot in Malaysian camp – Peter Aung

Some 200 Burmese and Vietnamese migrants held in a Malaysian immigration
camp last night rioted and attempted to set the camp’s administration
office on fire.

Malaysian news agency Bernama reported that the riots were sparked by a
fight between two Vietnamese inmates, although the New Straits Times claim
they were protesting about poor living conditions. DVB was unable to
contact anyone on the issue.

Police had also reportedly stopped an attempt by the rioters to break out
of the Ajil detention camp in Terengganu state, northeastern Malaysia.

It mirrors an incident in July last year when 700 illegal Burmese migrants
rioted at Malaysia’s Semenyih camp. They had earlier staged a hunger
strike in protest of their denial of access to United Nations refugee
officials.

The issue of Burmese migrants has been a sore point for the Malaysian
government; last year it was revealed that senior Malaysian immigration
officials had been complicit in the trafficking of Burmese nationals.

It is estimated that around 5,000 Burmese men, women and children migrants
are being held in detention centres across Malaysia, often in poor
conditions and with only sporadic access the UN officials.

Last week five Burmese children, one as young as 12, who had been held in
a Malaysian camp for nearly a year were deported back to Burma. They were
trafficked out of their country in July last year after their parents were
tricked into handing them over to men who had promised them jobs in
Rangoon, and were forced to beg on the streets of suburban Kuala Lumpur.

But a crackdown by police on beggars in the capital landed them in
detention at the Tanah Merah camp, close to the Thailand border.

The Burmese embassy in Kuala Lumpur refused to finance their return to
Burma, but a Burmese businessman reportedly offered to cover their travel
expenses back home, and they left on a Myanmar Airways International
flight on 5 June, according to Kyaw Kyaw of the exiled National League for
Democracy-Liberated Area, who saw them leave.

“They seemed happy to be sent back home although I felt sorry for them
because they looked really tired after just coming out of the [detention
camp],” he said.

“I sympathise with their various hardships and the mental trauma they
suffered in the camp. I’d be inconsolable if I saw my children in this
situation. I feel sad for the children of Burma who are becoming beggars
even before reaching adulthood.”

One boy arrested along with the five others remains in Malaysia, having
been temporarily adopted by a Burmese NGO in Malaysia.

____________________________________

June 7, Kaladan Press
Rohingya asylum seekers face food crisis in Cambodia – Tin Soe

Chittagong, Bangladesh: Arakanese Rohingya asylum seekers are facing a
crisis of food in Cambodia, said Mohamed Tayub, an asylum seeker in a
mobile phone interview.

“As an asylum seeker, we are unable to work for survival. If we are given
refugee status we will get facilities, but, now we are facing food crisis,
he added.

A total of 32 Arakanese Rohingya asylum seekers reached Cambodia since
January 2010, he said.

“All the asylum seekers had given interviews to the concerned authority
including UNHCR and hope to get refugee status, but when we don’t know,”
Tayub said.

The Jesuit Refugees Service (JRS) in Cambodia provided us shelter (rooms),
water and electricity and UNHCR provides for health care, said another
asylum seeker Abdul Kahled.

“We are living now at No. 255, ST-598, Sangkat Phnom Penh Thmei, Khan
Russey Keo, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, “he said.

“JRS provided us food for two months, when we arrived in Cambodia but now
it has stopped giving food as the organization has no more funds to
support us, he said.

“We also requested and applied to the UNHCR for food but, UNHCR is only
providing us health care,” said Abdullah, another asylum seeker who has
two children with him.

“We are requesting our community organizations from outside Burma to help
us,” Tayub told Kaladan News.

Ms. Chris Lewa, Director of Arakan project visited the Arakanese Rohingya
asylum seekers in Cambodia on May 19 to 23. She tried to get support from
other INGOs. But, she failed to resolve the crisis and told asylum seekers
to request Arakanese Rohingya organizations in exile for support and to
resolve the food crisis, according to a letter from asylum seekers from
Cambodia.

____________________________________

June 7, My Paper (Singapore)
Myanmar rebuts nuclear talk – Kenny Chee

Myanmar ambassador says that renewed allegations that the country has a
secret nuclear programme were false.

THE Myanmar ambassador to Singapore has told my paper that renewed
allegations that the country has a secret nuclear programme were false,
but experts said new evidence raises more suspicions regarding alleged
nuclear equipment purchases by the reclusive nation.

When asked at the end of the three-day Shangri-La Dialogue security
conference yesterday on fresh media reports on the issue, Ambassador Win
Myint said they were "not true". "It stereotypes our country," he said.
"If (we wanted to) know how to produce nuclear bombs, we need
infrastructure and technology."

On reports that North Korea had been helping Myanmar build up nuclear
capabilities, Mr Win Myint said: "Some communities and societies...
stereotype our country."

Last week, Norway-based media group Democratic Voice of Burma released a
report that said military-ruled Myanmar was secretly building a nuclear
programme and has intentions of creating a nuclear bomb.

The report said a defector involved in the nuclear programme smuggled out
extensive files and photos describing experiments with uranium and
specialised gear needed to build a nuclear reactor and develop enrichment
capabilities. It said Myanmar was still not close to a weapon.

United States Senator Jim Webb nixed a Myanmar trip last Thursday due to
the report, according to Reuters.

Last July, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed worries that
Myanmar was receiving nuclear technology from North Korea and called it a
threat to US allies.

Security experts say the latest nuclear allegations have raised more
questions and concerns.

Mr Mark Fitzpatrick, Senior Fellow for Non-proliferation at The
International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), told reporters at
the Shangri-La Dialogue that the latest developments on Myanmar were
discussed on the sidelines and at at least one closed-door session.

The London-based Mr Fitzpatrick later told my paper Myanmar has
consistently denied claims it is pursuing a nuclear programme. But he said
Myanmar had imported very sophisticated machine tools which could be used
for making missile parts or possibly nuclear energy or nuclear weaponry.
"One of the gravest questions is what is the purpose of these...tools," he
said.

Dr Tim Huxley, executive director of IISS Asia, said Myanmar has moved
another notch closer to being seen as a rogue state with the new reports,
and it was "courting serious consequences" for not being open.

Myanmar Deputy Minister of Defence Aye Myint was to attend the forum but
pulled out last week. Asked why, Mr Win Myint said it is because Premier
Wen Jiabao of China was visiting Myanmar at the same time as the
conference.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

June 7, Reuters
IAEA Chief says looking into Myanmar nuclear report

Vienna – The U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Monday it was looking into a
report that military-ruled Myanmar was aiming to develop nuclear weapons.
South Asia

Yukiya Amano, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), also
said that if necessary the Vienna-based body may ask for clarification
from Myanmar.

Accounts of suspected nuclear plans surfaced last year, but Myanmar has
never confirmed or denied any nuclear ambitions.

Last week, an investigation by an exiled anti-government group said
Myanmar was seeking to develop a clandestine nuclear programme with the
intent to produce an atomic bomb.

The five-year investigation by the Norway-based Democratic Voice of Burma
(DVB) concluded that Myanmar, formerly Burma, was a long way from
producing a nuclear weapon but had gone to great lengths to acquire the
technology and expertise to do so.

If true, it would be the first southeast Asian country with nuclear
ambitions and alter the strategic landscape of a fast-growing region whose
big countries -- from Indonesia to the Philippines and Thailand -- are
closely allied with Washington.

"We have seen the related articles in the media and we are now assessing
the information," Amano told a news conference.

"And, if necessary, we will seek clarification from Myanmar," the Japanese
diplomat said, speaking on the first day of a meeting of the 35-nation
board of the IAEA.
Myanmar is a member of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), a
global anti-nuclear arms pact, and of the IAEA.

The DVB report cited a U.S. nuclear scientist assessing evidence provided
by Sai Thein Win, a Burmese defence engineer trained in Russia in missile
technology.

He said he had defected after working in factories built to develop
weapons of mass destruction.

The report prompted a U.S. Senator, Jim Webb, to cancel a trip to Myanmar
last Thursday, which he said would be "unwise and inappropriate" in light
of the report.

Previous claims by defectors suggest Myanmar had enlisted the help of
North Korea, with which it reportedly agreed a memorandum of understanding
on military cooperation during a visit by a top general to Pyongyang last
year.

____________________________________

June 7, Radio Free Asia
Weapons trump development

Burma’s regime seeks a military deterrent to preserve its chokehold on power.

BANGKOK—The Burmese junta is taking cues from North Korea on how to use
weaponry to maintain its grip on power at the people's expense, experts
say.

On June 3, the Norway-based news agency Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB)
released hundreds of photos purportedly showing facilities the junta is
using to develop nuclear expertise, which it said is likely being refined
with North Korea's help.

Bruce Klingner, senior research fellow at the conservative
Washington-based Heritage Foundation, said Burma is also spending what
little money it earns preparing to repel a feared invasion with North
Korean tunneling techniques.

“Burma, like North Korea, has no problems with subjugating the population
and with starving the population as it focuses its priorities on
developing military programs—in Burma’s case a lot of underground
facilities, which again mirrors North Korea,” he said.

“[It’s] developing missile and/or nuclear programs, even as the people
suffer international isolation and poor economic conditions.”

Photos ‘appear genuine’

DVB also released analysis contending that while the photos come from one
source—a former Burmese Army major, Sai Thein Win, who recently defected
to Thailand—they are “so consistent with other information ... that they
lead to a high degree of confidence that Burma is pursuing nuclear
technology.”

The analysis, compiled by former director of the UN International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA) Robert Kelley and co-researcher Ali Fowle, concluded
that the technology, likely originating in North Korea, “is only for
nuclear weapons and not civilian use or nuclear power.”

Kelley and Fowle said Burma’s generals, over time, “seek more ways to hang
onto power as their wealth grows ever larger and the dissatisfaction of
the population threatens to oust them.”

The researchers said Burma hopes to develop a defensive military power
that would “make foreign intervention very painful for an aggressor,” and
which “signals its neighbors to leave them alone.”

“The model for this is the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, DPRK,
commonly known as North Korea. North Korea is too poor to threaten anyone
except its immediate neighbors, but its possession of nuclear weapons
inhibits any outside intervention in its repressive regime.”

The Burmese regime has denied developing a nuclear weapons program.

Geoff Forden, a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT), said building such facilities would likely have cost Burma “on the
order of U.S. $10 million or several tens of millions of dollars.”

“I was struck by aspects [of the photos] 
 related to what the government
of Burma is willing to do to prevent what they think of as an invasion
possibility,” Forden said.

“To me it seems like they are not very concerned about the people of Burma
and are willing to let them suffer so that the regime could survive,” he
said.

“The other documents showed a real lack of concern for the Burmese people
that was very disturbing.”

Forden said the photos appear genuine and consistent with what is known
about Burma’s military plans.

They appear to show the inside of two factories the junta has built to
house advanced “Western technology,” he said, but added that it is
unlikely the equipment is used to manufacture any viable weaponry.

“They’re general-purpose machine shops with sophisticated equipment, and
they could do quite a few things. And Burma has shown an interest in
making missiles, though they are definitely not very far along in their
program,” he said.

Imports are key

Forden said Burma’s ability to develop an effective weapons program relies
on its regime’s ability to import technology.

“It’s going to depend on how much foreign assistance they can get. And
presumably they would get it from North Korea,” he said.

“If that goes through, as there were indications, then they could get ...
a Nodong missile fairly rapidly—maybe one or two years,” Forden said,
referring to the North Korean mid-range ballistic missile.

“They’re just starting off in the missile program, and it definitely needs
foreign assistance that they haven’t gotten yet.”

Klingner cited “little to no evidence of how much progress, if any, has
been made” by any Burmese nuclear or missile porgram.

“I haven’t seen anything tangible ... it seems a general consensus is that
there is nothing imminent, even if there is an effort there,” he said.

Preservation of power

“Given North Korea’s propensity for nuclear development as well as
proliferation ... I think there is great suspicion or certainty that North
Korea also has a relationship with Burma,” he said, adding that both North
Korea and Burma, which the ruling junta calls Myanmar, are pariah states.

Burma could attempt to use a missile and nuclear weapons program as a
deterrent to a U.S. attack, Klingner said, which the regime fears enough
to have relocated the country’s capital from Rangoon to the remote city of
Naypyidaw in 2005.

“Or perhaps they would go down the path of North Korea—of using the threat
of a nuclear deterrent or a nuclear weapons program as a way of forcing
concessions from their opponents, including an amelioration of
international sanctions,” he said.

Hours before the report was released, U.S. senator Jim Webb canceled a
planned trip to Burma, citing U.S. concerns over an alleged shipment of
North Korean arms to Burma.

Webb chairs a U.S. Senate Foreign Relations panel on East Asia, and has
called for increased dialogue between the Obama administration and Burma's
junta.

Original reporting RFA’s Burmese service and Joshua Lipes. Burmese service
director: Nyein Shwe. Executive producer: Susan Lavery. Written for the
Web in English by Joshua Lipes. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

June 6, Stanford Review (US)
Burma and nuclear weapons? – Stephen Herzog

A new report released by the dissident group Democratic Voice of Burma
alleges that Myanmar has taken steps toward nuclear weapons development.
The report is co-authored by former IAEA senior inspector Robert Kelley,
and it’s based upon a five-year investigation of documents and photos
provided by Burmese army defector Sai Thein Win. The evidence is
particularly troubling given past accusations that North Korea has
provided missile and nuclear technologies to Naypyidaw. Both the DPRK and
Burma have always denied these allegations.

The report states that Burma is pursuing several elements of the fuel
cycle, as well as missile and bomb prototype development. And, it suggests
that the junta is keeping its options open. Scientists are apparently
experimenting with laser isotope separation and gas centrifuge technology
for uranium enrichment, and the regime reportedly has plans to build or
purchase a reactor for plutonium byproduct diversion.

Centrifuges are the easier—though still difficult—of the two
aforementioned uranium enrichment technologies to master and could result
in the development of a primitive gun-type device. Laser enrichment is
probably far too advanced for Burma to master in the near-term, but it’s
also relatively easier to conceal than centrifuge plants. The plutonium
diversion route requires the creation of a sophisticated implosion device,
which probably wouldn’t come easily without outside assistance—say, from
Pyongyang.

No one is claiming that Burma is even remotely close to a bomb, but
small-quantity laser enrichment and weapon prototypes have no peaceful
energy application. If the evidence provided by the defector is
legitimate, these types of technologies could offer a clear sign of the
junta’s current or past nuclear ambitions. Since the evidence is at least
five years old, it is possible that the regime has rolled back elements of
its nuclear program in recent years.

There’s no word yet from the IAEA on these allegations. However, in the
coming days we should see robust international pressure on the
organization to investigate. It will be interesting to see if the junta
admits IAEA inspectors to its suspected covert facilities, and if so, the
size and scope of the program may have changed quite a bit since the
acquisition of the evidence. Myanmar is an NPT member and has signed on to
the Southeast Asian nuclear-weapons-free zone. The country has even
benefited from IAEA technical cooperation, but it hasn’t concluded an
Additional Protocol agreement with the organization.

It’s too soon for serious action, as the international community will want
some time to verify the report. But for now, there appears to be a fairly
compelling case for ramping up enforcement of the Proliferation Security
Initiative with respect to ships bound for Burma.

____________________________________

June 7, The Walrus (Canada)
Home free – Karen Connelly

A federal resettlement program for Burmese Karen sees 4,000 refugees
starting new lives in Canada.

Moo Kyah and Eh Blu Htoo’s apartment in Hamilton, Ontario, is small and
plainly furnished. The walls are decorated with glossy magazine pictures
of Karen and Thai pop stars; leftover Christmas tinsel glitters around a
shrine of happy, airbrushed faces. Just after my arrival, one Saturday
afternoon in February, a handful of young men shuffle in the door, hoping
to set up their electric guitars — the sitting room is angular with
amplifiers of all sizes — but upon seeing me, a stranger, they grin, blink
at the floor, and scuttle away again. I call out, “You don’t have to
leave!” as the door clicks shut behind them.

My friend and translator, Ler Wah Lo Bo, laughs and says, “The young men
are shy. But they are also curious. They’ll come back.” With his rugged
good looks and his perfectly in-tune baritone, he’s famous in the Karen
community for his fine renditions of Johnny Cash and other country and
western singers. Professionally, he works as a phone interpreter for Karen
people across North America, but he has also spent a great deal of time
and energy supporting recently arrived Karen refugees in Toronto,
Hamilton, and the surrounding areas.

New arrivals need help finding and settling into strange new apartment
buildings, using the transit system, and filling out health care and legal
paperwork. They have all come here through a Canadian government
resettlement program that since 2006 has seen over 3,000 Burmese Karen
refugees begin new lives in cities and towns across Canada. By the time
the program ends later this year, another 900 men, women, and children
from refugee camps on the Thai border will be experiencing for the first
time the strangeness of snow and political freedom.

Petite, twenty-three-year-old Moo Kyah is more willing to talk than her
husband; she’s better at English. “We learn it every day at school. All
day. But is very difficult. On Sunday, I go sometimes to the English
Baptist church.” I’m surprised there isn’t a Karen church, considering
there are now some 200 refugees, many of them devout Baptists, living in
Hamilton. She quickly clarifies: “Oh yes, we have our own church, too, in
our Karen language. Sometimes I go there in the morning, then I go to the
other Baptist church in the afternoon. To listen to the English. You know,
for practice.”

Eh Blu Htoo turns his broad, handsome face in my direction, shakes his mop
of hair, and speaks a long paragraph in Karen. Ler Wah Lo Bo’s translation
is a tidy summary: “He says English makes him suffer, a lot. But he wants
you to meet his six-year-old sister. She speaks it perfectly, no accent!”
Eh Blu Htoo’s parents and his seven siblings came to Canada in 2006, three
years before he and Moo Kyah did. He missed registering for the Canadian
program at the same time as his family because, following many other
destitute and semi-imprisoned refugees, he had snuck out of a camp to work
illegally. After labouring on a Thai farm in slavery-like conditions, he
was lucky to return to the camp in time to make the program’s final
deadline. And here he is, grinning at me and rubbing his English-addled
head. The challenge of learning the language is particularly ironic, since
a fierce struggle for the right to speak and to be Karen has led him, his
wife, and a handful of his people to Canada.

In their own country, Burma, it is not exactly a crime to belong to one of
the country’s many ethnic groups, but it tends to make life more
dangerous. In the 1930s and ’40s, the Karen people fought beside British
colonialists against the Burmese independence fighters, a nationalist
force mostly made up of Burmans, the country’s major ethnic group. In
return for the Karen people’s loyalty, the British reportedly promised to
help them form an autonomous state of their own. With the crumbling of the
Empire, that grand promise never came to fruition. Britain essentially
washed its hands of the Karen once the brilliant young Burmese freedom
fighter General Aung San negotiated the country’s independence in 1947.

General Aung San recognized that stability in the fledgling democracy
depended on building a solid peace with its ethnic populations, but he
never had time to develop his vision. Shortly after coming to power, he
and most of his cabinet members were assassinated, plunging the country’s
future into uncertainty. In 1962, another military man, Ne Win, staged a
coup d’état and became Burma’s ipso facto dictator for the next twenty-six
years. In 1988, he handed over power to a bevy of generals now known as
the spdc: the State Peace and Development Council.

Over the past half century, the Karen, the Karenni, the Shan, the Mon, the
Chin, the Kachin, the Wa, the Naga, the Rakhine, the Kayah, the Palaung,
and other ethnic groups have fought a bitter guerilla war against the
dictatorship’s well-armed battalions. Some historians consider it the
longest-running civil conflict in the world. Western governments and human
rights organizations regularly protest the house arrest of Nobel Peace
Prize winner (and daughter of General Aung San) Aung San Suu Kyi, and make
demands for the release of over 2,000 political prisoners who are
suffering in prisons across the country. In an unprecedented move, the UN
has recently called for Burma’s military leaders to be investigated for
allegations of war crimes. Some of the most egregious abuses — slave
labour unto death, summary execution, the amputation of penises and
breasts, the rape of women from the very young to the very old — take
place far from the heart of the country, against people who speak
languages the Burmese soldiers cannot understand.

The last time ivory-skinned Moo Kyah was in Burma, she was six years old.
A Burmese army battalion attacked her village one day when her mother
wasn’t home. Amid mortar explosions, gunfire, and screaming women and
children, her big brother ran with Moo Kyah clinging to his back; another
brother and sister were old enough to run beside him. They fled into the
jungle and found others who had escaped. Eventually, they were reunited
with their mother. After two weeks of hiding and another Burmese army
attack, they decided to walk to Thailand, into the precarious safety of a
refugee camp.

There are ten camps along the 1,600-kilometre Thai border, with a total
population of about 140,000, from over a dozen ethnic groups, the majority
being Karen and Karenni; each is a place of painful contradictions. As one
walks along the narrow, dusty paths lined with thatch huts, the camp
resembles a sprawling village, more stuffed with people than one usually
encounters in rural Southeast Asia, with smaller, simpler buildings and
fewer shops — and less food, and not enough open space for the children or
the gardens or the animals — but still vaguely homey. Men and women sit on
the porches of the little huts, idle, or with small tasks occupying their
hands. Frustrated energy wafts through the entire area like smoke from the
innumerable charcoal cooking fires. Peoples’ faces, hands, and bodies are
marked, sometimes literally scarred, with the fraught history of their
nation. But the rampant domestic abuse and sexual assault that result from
a traumatized population living in overcrowded, impoverished conditions
remain largely invisible to visitors.

Though the camps offer some security from overt attacks by the Burmese
army, they are essentially insecure places. After all, to be a refugee
means you do not have a real home, that you cannot come and go as you
please (the areas are fenced and guarded by Thai soldiers), that you live
in a foreign country whose citizens despise your presence, that you have
few prospects (if any) for the future. Yet thousands of children are born
here every year. Their eyes glitter from the low doorways, from behind
clumps of weeds and stunted banana trees, through chinks in thatch-woven
walls. They are like children everywhere, often dazzlingly beautiful,
possessed of lively intelligence and humour, hungry to eat up the world.

All of Eh Blu Htoo’s younger siblings were born in the narrow confines of
the refugee camp where he himself grew up, and where he met and married
Moo Kyah. Her mother and siblings are still there, and may never get out.
When the Canadian resettlement program for Burmese refugees ends later
this year, it will not be renewed. There is no shortage of destitute
populations to help: over ten million people in the world today are
refugees. Every year, twenty-some countries accept roughly 100,000 of that
number to become new citizens. Canada is one of the most accommodating,
settling from 10,000 to 12,000 refugees annually. Canadian citizens and
community groups can sponsor Burmese refugees privately, but it is a
complicated, time-consuming, and expensive process. When someone departs
the precarious world of the border and begins a safe life in a new
country, some kind of miracle has taken place.

Ironically, the magnifying glass of immigration law in Canada sometimes
burns a hole right through the miracle. While Eh Blu Htoo and Moo Kyah
already have their permanent residency status and will become Canadian
citizens within two years, translator Ler Wah Lo Bo remains trapped in a
bureaucratic nightmare. He has lived here as a legal refugee for eight
years, working and paying taxes, but the Canadian government has yet to
grant him permanent residency, citing section 34(1)(b) of the Immigration
and Refugee Protection Act, which states that a foreign national is
inadmissible for residency in Canada on security grounds if he has engaged
in the subversion by force of any government.

When he decided to apply to Canada as a refugee, he was surviving on the
Thai border by working for ngos. He helped organize the International
Campaign to Ban Landmines; he documented abuses against the Karen people
for a human rights organization; he acted as a translator. But years
before that, he was a soldier for the Karen army, fighting against the
Burmese dictatorship — information he voluntarily disclosed to Canadian
officials. When they accepted him as a refugee, he assumed that he was on
the road to becoming a Canadian citizen and that it was only a matter of a
couple of years before he could bring his wife and children over from the
refugee camp in Thailand.

But in the aftermath of 9/11, American and Canadian governments became
particularly wary of any refugee claimant who has also been an armed
combatant, though the Karen army — the Karen National Liberation Army — is
not classified as a terrorist organization. (Not to mention that a handful
of former Burmese resistance fighters have been allowed to join the
Canadian Armed Forces.)

Ler Wah Lo Bo now waits for the Canadian government to decide what to do
with him. If he is deported back to Thailand, he returns to the old limbo,
lonelier this time because his wife and children, tired of waiting to join
him, immigrated to the US through another relative. His wife died there
two years ago in a car accident. If he is sent back to Burma — because the
Thai government will not accept him — he will be executed.

“You see?” he says, lifting his eyebrows and motioning his head toward the
door. “I told you they would all come back.” I smile but don’t say a word
until the guitar players take off their shoes and come into the little
sitting room.

Ler Wah Lo Bo was right; they are a curious bunch. For the next hour, we
sit around the kitchen table and eat noodles, drink Canada Dry ginger ale,
and talk about the trials and pleasures of living in a cold, free country
where so many people drink coffee all day long. I show them pictures of my
family, and of Rangoon, Burma’s biggest city. None of them have ever been
there. We talk about how much they miss the friends they left behind, and
how they sometimes miss their old lives, which were hard but simpler, more
comprehensible.

“Did you ever feel guilty for not joining the armed struggle against the
Burmese government?” I ask. Ler Wah Lo Bo translates to make sure everyone
has understood. His words, in Karen, seem to give them permission to
speak, and they do, among themselves, not looking at me. Meanwhile, I
consider the guitars leaning against the walls of the room. In the Karen
army camps in the jungle, these black instruments would be guns — old,
much-repaired semi-automatic and automatic rifles.

A few minutes later, he reports back. His voice is soft: “We all believe
in the revolution, that it is right. We must fight against the regime and
help the Karen people. But there are different ways to fight. There are
other ways to help our people.” That is why he applied for, and received,
an honorary discharge from the army he gave years of his youth to. He
opens his hands toward Eh Blu Htoo and his friends. “They all have uncles
or cousins or friends in the Karen army. They have all gone to the
funerals of those who died as soldiers. And the camps are full of
amputees, because there are so many land mines in the jungle. They say
it’s hard to join the armed struggle when you see the amputees every day.
They were afraid to die.”

I look around at the faces in the room. I’m glad they’re here, in this
small apartment in Hamilton. “I’ve asked you all so many questions. Now,
is there anything you’d like to ask me?”

There is silence at the table. Then Moo Kyah, who is at the counter
cutting up a chicken, turns around and dries her hands on a cloth. She has
been listening carefully to everything, understanding everything. “I have
just one question. Is the Canadian government going to allow more Karen
refugees to come to Canada?”

____________________________________

June 5, Irrawaddy
Burma's nuke ambitions an opportunity for Obama – Htet Aung

Burma will definitely become the first nuclear power in Southeast Asia if
the world gives the country's ruling generals a free hand to pursue their
secret ambitions.

On Friday, the Al Jazeera news network broadcast a documentary film
detailing the latest shocking evidence of Burma's bid to become a
nuclear-armed nation. Produced by the Norway-based Democratic Voice of
Burma, the documentary features extensive documentation, including photos
and blueprints of tunnels and suspected nuclear facilities.

Sai Thein Win, a former major in the Burmese army who studied nuclear and
missile technologies in Russia and was involved in Burma’s secret nuclear
plan, defected with these important documents earlier this year. They
offer the most compelling evidence yet of a threat that the international
community can no longer afford to ignore.

The emergence of another paranoid dictatorship with nukes is the last
thing the world needs. For the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(Asean), it is especially alarming, as it undoes a longstanding commitment
to keep the region free of nuclear weapons.

It was just seven months ago that US President Barack Obama attended the
first Asean-US summit in Singapore. On that occasion, his regional
counterparts (including Burmese Prime Minister Thein Sein, who was able to
attend because of Obama's newly announced engagement policy) applauded his
nuclear disarmament efforts.

In a joint statement, the Asean leaders said they “welcomed the efforts of
the President of the United States in promoting international peace and
security including the vision of a nuclear weapons free world.”

The statement continued: “We are convinced that the establishment of a
Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapons Free Zone will contribute towards global
nuclear disarmament and nuclear non-proliferation and peace and security
in the region.”

Now that it is clear, however, that Burma doesn't sincerely share this
vision of the region's future, it is time for the international community
to get serious about addressing a security threat that grows more ominous
with each new revelation.

One area of particular concern is Burma's ties with North Korea. An
alliance has been forming between these two rogue states for several
years, and it is becoming increasingly clear that cooperation on nuclear
weapons development is one of the cornerstones of their relationship.

Responding to the evidence presented in the Al Jazeera/DVB documentary,
Geoff Morrell, a spokesperson for Defense Secretary Robert Gates, said the
US was concerned about Burma's “growing military ties with the DPRK [North
Korea],” but did not comment directly on the nuclear allegations.

He did, however, raise the issue of United Nations Security Council
Resolutions (UNSCRs) that forbid weapons trading with North Korea.

“[We] are following it closely to ensure that the multiple UNSCRs are
enforced,” he said.

The US has good reason to be “concerned.”  North Korea's acquisition of
nuclear weapons has significantly heightened tensions in East Asia, and a
failure to prevent the spread of North Korean weapons technology to
Southeast Asia could seriously undermine security there as well.

That is why the Obama administration must take Burma off the back burner
and make it one of its foreign policy priorities in the region.

It could start by pushing China and Russia, the Burmese regime's two
staunchest defenders in the UN Security Council, to start cooperating with
its efforts to take the junta to task for its multiple violations of
international norms.

The US already has its priorities straight on Burma, focusing largely on
the issues of democracy and human rights, but it could do more to get
other countries on board with its targeted sanctions against the ruling
generals and their partners in crime.

The Obama administration should act quickly to punish the regime for its
clear violation of UN Security Council Resolution No. 1874, which was
passed unanimously a year ago to condemn North Korea's nuclear weapons
testing. If it doesn't, Southeast Asia could become the next region to
face a nuclear menace.

____________________________________

June 5, New Light of Myanmar
Perspectives: China-Myanmar relations open new page

The Union of Myanmar and the People's Republic of China share a common
border, and the two peoples have been dealing with each other through
fraternal sentiment for long. Friendly relations between the two
neighbours are very fruitful.

At the invitation of Prime Minister of the Union of Myanmar U Thein Sein,
a Chinese delegation led by Premier of the State Council of the People's
Republic of China Mr Wen Jiabao paid a goodwill visit to Myanmar on 2 and
3 June.

Head of State Senior General Than Shwe received the visiting Chinese
delegation at Zeyathiri Beikman in Nay Pyi Taw on 3 June. The two sides
exchanged views on improving bilateral relations, boosting economic
cooperation, cooperation in regional and international fields, and matters
the two countries need to take heed.

During the goodwill visit, the two prime ministers compared notes in
constantly cementing bilateral relations and cooperation in regional and
international spheres. Respective ministers and officials of the two sides
signed agreements and MoUs on economic and technological cooperation, rail
transportation, trade, hydropower, energy and mining, and exchanged the
documents.

The diplomatic ties between China and Myanmar are now in their 60th
anniversary. The two nations maintain the good neighbourly relations based
on equality, understanding and mutual support for each other. Bilateral
cooperation in various sectors has made significant progress, and the
bilateral relations have grown to strategic relations.

Chinese Premier Mr Wen Jiabao's visit to Myanmar helps strengthen the
friendly relations. Now, China-Myanmar relations have opened a new
chapter. Therefore, bilateral cooperation in various arenas will
contribute towards generation of a prosperous future.