BurmaNet News, July 2, 2010

[Editor]

July 2, 2010 Issue #3995

INSIDE BURMA
Irrawaddy: Is USDA handpicking ethnic parties?
Irrawaddy: Censorship cause party not to compete
Mizzima: ILO aids child soldier but many march on
Xinhua: Myanmar forest coverage falls to 41 pct in 2010

ON THE BORDER
Irrawaddy: DKBA, KNU held secret peace talks
DVB: Dhaka delays controversial gas project
The Nation: Burma-border public hearing kicks off

BUSINESS / TRADE
CSM: What stigma? Burma (Myanmar) draws energy-hungry neighbors
Irrawaddy: Jade, jewelry show has good sales
Cardline: Myanmar Rolling Out Country's First Bankcards

REGIONAL
DVB: Burmese rebels in India plea bargain
The Australian: Burmese minority left to languish

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

July 2, Irrawaddy
Is USDA handpicking ethnic parties? - Wai Moe

Signs have emerged that the Burmese military junta's loyal civic partner,
the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA), has taken on the
responsibility of securing pro-regime voting blocs in ethnic minority
areas ahead of the election.

According to several sources in ethnic states, the USDA has promised to
provide funding for and assist in the establishment of pro-junta ethnic
parties, while at the same time guaranteeing that the Union Election
Commission (EC) will reject political parties that are related to
cease-fire groups that have refused to comply with Naypyidaw's Border
Guard Force (BGF) plan.

This week, a newly founded political party in Kachin State, the Kachin
State Unity and Democracy Party, has registered with the EC in Naypyidaw.
However, sources in Kachin State and the Chiang Mai-based Kachin News
Group have alleged that the new party chairman, Hkyet Hting Nan, and other
party members are allied with the USDA, citing their cooperation during
the referendum in May 2008.

It is widely believed that Burma's ruling generals originally planned to
allow political parties related to cease-fire groups and other independent
parties to contest the general election. However, sources in Naypyidaw
said the policy was revised after the main opposition party, the National
League for Democracy (NLD), decided in late March not to contest the
coming election. Junta chief Than Shwe began by appointing Prime Minister
Thein Sein as chairman of the new Union Solidarity and Development Party
(USDP).

“Last year, the government newspapers praised the former vice chairman of
the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), Dr. Tuja, for his involvement
in forming the Kachin State Progressive Party to participate in the
election,” said a source who spoke to The Irrawaddy on condition of
anonymity. “But the tide has now changed for Dr. Tuja—the EC may not grant
his party's registration.”

In September 2009, two commentaries in the state-run The New Light of
Myanmar heaped praise on Tuja’s steps to support the election process, and
condemned other ethnic groups that opposed the election and the BGF plan.

“It is welcome news that negotiations will be made to reconstitute the
KIO, which has returned to the legal fold, as a frontier force, and that
six Kachin national race leaders, including Vice-Chairman Dr Tuja, have
been allowed to resign in order that they can form a political party and
run in the 2010 election,” one commentary said.

“Dr Tuja will build a brighter future for Kachin State by forming the
Kachin State Progressive Party representing the Kachin nationals,” it
concluded.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy recently about his election dilemma, Tuja said,
“From what we have heard, the EC's restrictions are somehow related to the
transformation of the KIO to a border guard force under the command of the
regime—and if that plan goes well, we will all be approved.”

Some sources have claimed that the USDA is also backing ethnic parties in
other regions, such as Shan State, Karen State and Mon State, in a bid to
win a majority of seats not only in the Upper and Lower Houses, but in the
regional assemblies as well.

One source said that the USDA plans to back the All Mon Region Democracy
Party, which is led by Nai Ngwe Thein, a former professor who is allegedly
close to the USDA. During a recent interview with The Irrawaddy, Nai Ngwe
Thein said that his party would contest the election because “it is an
opportunity presented by the Constitution.”

Sources close to the Mon cease-fire group, the New Mon State Party, said
that the USDA began planting their associates in Mon State in 2008-9 when
many village heads were replaced by those loyal to the USDA.

____________________________________

July 2, Irrawaddy
Censorship cause party not to compete - Ko Htwe

Burma's press censorship board, the Press Scrutiny and Registration
Division (PSRD), is strictly censoring political news in weekly journals,
causing the Peace and Diversity Party (PDP) to rethink its decision to
participate in the coming election.

Col. Myo Myint Maung, the newly appointed joint-director of the PSRD, is
strictly monitoring and censoring election and political news, said a
Rangoon-based weekly journal editor.

For example, the PDP recently attempted to publish a party member
recruiting announcement that read “Candidate Wanted ” in The Voice Weekly
journal, but the PSRD excluded the announcement, said Nay Myo Wai, the
secretary of the PDP.

On Thursday, the PDP wrote an open letter to the PSRD, asking how to
proceed if the PSRD continues banning descriptions of their parties
policies and activities in journals.

“If we don't have free expression, I feel ashamed to participate in the
election,” said Nay Myo Wai.

Because the PDP cannot accept PSRD censorship of political party news in
the journals, within the next 15 days the PDP will review its decision to
compete in the coming election, said Nay Myo Wai. The PDP's final decision
will depend on what the PSRD does during that period.

The PSRD announced on March 17 that registered parties can apply to the
censorship board to publish material in accordance with the 1962 Printing
and Publishing Act.

However, publications must conform to certain rules: they must not
“oppose” the ruling State Peace and Development Council, must not make any
attempt to criticize the armed forces and must conform to the law, the
statement said.

The PSRD requires political parties to register before they publish
campaign material, charging 100,000 kyat (US $100) and a 500,000 kyat
($500) as a deposit.

Although many registered political parties have permission to publish
their own election-related materials such as pamphlets, journals and
booklets, a large percentage face severe financial problems and so depend
on Burma's weekly journals to publish their party's policies and
activities.

The PSRD routinely inspects and censors books, journals and newspapers.
Any media criticism of the military junta is strictly forbidden. After the
election laws were announced last month, the PSRD began banning comments
and analysis, and censoring articles related to the election in local
journals.

Burmese media were recently prohibited by the PSRD from reporting news
regarding the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), led by Prime
Minister Thein Sein, that related to USDP founders remaining in their
government posts. Some journals were forced to publish a blank where these
stories would have run.

By contrast, the USDP is allowed to run its own journal, the Nwe Thargi,
without interference, said media sources.

Meanwhile, the PSRD has allowed a private Rangoon journal not to publish a
junta propaganda article in the coming week.

A Rangoon-based editor told The Irrawaddy on Friday, “We welcome the news.
In the past, the PSRD forced us to published propaganda articles without
fail. Now we have one more page for a new section. But once a month or so
we have to publish propaganda articles if the PSRD pass them to us.”

Another Rangoon-based weekly journal editor said the propaganda articles
are a burden and nobody reads them.

Despite their strict rules and regulations and draconian censorship
practices, the PSRD currently licenses the publication of 326 newspapers,
magazines and journals in Burma, and a further 10 are expected to appear.
Some selected journals close to key officials are profitable.

____________________________________

July 2, Mizzima News
ILO aids child soldier but many march on - Perry Santanachote

Chiang Mai– Young Thu Zin Oo made his daily trip across the Pun Hlaing
River from his village in North Okkalapa Township to the Sinmalite dock in
Rangoon on December 15 last year. He and his family sold pork rinds for a
living and needed to replenish their supply.

He never arrived at Sinmalite and failed to make the trip home that day
either. Instead, he ended up in the Burmese army at the age of 17.

Thu Zin Oo’s story is all too common in Burma, which the UN has repeatedly
cited as one of the world’s worst perpetrators of child recruitment to its
army. Human Rights Watch (HRW) estimated that Burma had “enlisted” 70,000
child soldiers in 2002. The rights watchdog has yet to report a drop in
this figure, despite the regime’s purported attempts to curb underage
recruitment. On that ominous day in December, Thu Zin Oo became another
statistic.

His bus trip required a transfer at Bayintnaung Junction. As Thu Zin Oo
waited for his connection he noticed a man beckoning him from a distance.
Curious, he went to him.

The man asked how he was earning his wage and Thu Zin Oo told him he made
1,500 Kyats a day selling pork rinds. The mystery man suggested he could
make more as a mechanic and that he would help him get a job.

“I was really interested in what he’d said and agreed to follow him,” Thu
Zin Oo said. “At that time I was thinking I would be able to make a better
life for my parents.”

The State Peace and Democracy Council (SPDC), Burma’s self-styled ruling
clique of generals, has repeatedly stated that its policy prohibits
recruitment of anyone under the age of 18 but the Coalition to Stop the
Use of Child Soldiers names Burma as the only Asian country where
government armed forces forcibly recruit and use children as young as 12
years old.

The US State Department’s Trafficking in Persons Report released this
month, also listed Burma as a top offender. The report said: “The regime’s
widespread use of and lack of accountability in forced labour and
recruitment of child soldiers is particularly worrying and represents the
top causal factor for Burma’s significant trafficking problem.”

It also chided Burma’s leaders for failing to not making significant
efforts to eliminate the problem.

Under international pressure, Burma’s government officials agreed to
comply with international standards and publicly vowed to crack down on
the recruitment of children to the army, especially after the Security
Council’s adoption of Resolution 1612 in 2005 to monitor the use of child
soldiers. Working with the UN workers’ right body, the International
Labour Organisation (ILO), the government created a complaint system in
2007 to provide a way for victims to seek redress.

Yet reports of forced child recruitment, mostly of boys aged between 14
and 16, remain.

“The army at the senior level has passed military orders saying that no
child under the age of 18 should be recruited,” ILO liaison officer in
Rangoon, Steve Marshall, said. “I think the problem exists at a lower
level where there are some conflicting pressures placed on personnel in
the military.”

Marshall said senior level commanders had required battalion commanders to
meet ambitious recruitment quotas amid high-desertion and low-enlistment
rates.

There is also a disparity between the penalties for failing to meet the
quota and the crime of underage recruitment. The UN reported in 2008 that
punishments for recruiting a child included official reprimands and
monetary fines, whereas battalion commanders faced loss of rank if they
failed to meet recruitment quotas.

The quota in turn made recruitment a profitable business in which brokers
or police are compensated for new recruits. Marshall estimates that
recruiters pay around 30,000 Kyats (about US$4,700) for each boy.

According to HRW, unaccompanied and poor children are often targeted
because they are easily lured with the promise of compensation, food or
shelter. The ILO estimates that roughly one-third of child soldiers are
recruited in this manner. If they refuse, recruiters use force or threaten
to arrest them on some frivolous charge. One-third volunteer for the army
and another third are simply abducted.

“Often a broker will say to a kid, ‘Hey, I can find you a job that pays
money’,” said Marshall. “They think they’ll get a job in a tea shop or
something and the next thing they know they’re in the army.”

With the promise of a good job, Thu Zin Oo went with the man from the
train station but realised his grave mistake when they arrived the
Danyingone Soldier Collection Centre. It all happened so quickly, he said,
and before he could process what was going on, he  was branded “Soldier
Number TA/427438”. Later that night he was loaded into a locked train car
with other boys in the same situation.

“In that carriage I saw about 100 young guys like me,” Thu Zin Oo said.
“We were never allowed to use the toilet so the guy next to me urinated on
the floor. As punishment he was badly beaten by some sergeants.”

Through the night the train transported the boys north to Pegu (Bago)
Division. The camp was in the Yaytashay Township of Taungoo District.

During his 18 weeks of basic training, Thu Zin Oo was forced to cut and
carry sugar cane while bullied by superiors. He recalled one instance of a
group of trainees being beaten about the head with wooden poles for
singing the national anthem too softly.

The Coalition reports that child soldiers are forced required to perform
tasks that include combat, portering, scouting, spying, guarding camps and
cooking. Escape attempts are punishable with up to five years in prison
for “desertion”.

Near the end of his basic training, Thu Zin Oo was allowed to call his
parents. “I told them I wanted to go home as I wasn’t happy,” he said.

His parents, relieved to find their son, contacted the ILO for help. The
ILO investigated Thu Zin Oo’s case and compiled proof-of-age
documentation. He was discharged from the army on June 8.

The ILO received 128 child soldier complaints between last April last and
this April – a dramatic increase on previous years, with 50 complaints
between 2007 and last year.

“The number of complaints that we have received has definitely increased,”
Marshall said. “However, we believe it is a reflection of people’s
understanding of the law and awareness of their right to lodge a
complaint.”

Marshall said the government and the ILO had been working to increase
awareness in Burma. The government has undertaken awareness workshops for
military personnel, and the ILO with the Ministry of Labour have started
conducting awareness-raising programmes targeted at local authorities. The
former started distributing government-approved flyers this month that
detail people’s legal rights and how to file a complaint.

“Progressively, we have been in a position where we’re in agreement with
the government and an increased number of children have been discharged
from the military,” he said.

The ILO had been able to aid in the release of all but three children
whose parents had filed complaints. One has yet to be found and two
claimed they wanted to stay in the military, Marshall said.

“The reality is that if the parents lodge a complaint and we’re able to
obtain their proof of age, the success rate is extremely high,” he said.
“The government, I must say, is very co-operative when the evidence is
placed in front of them.”

On the other hand, obtaining the evidence can be difficult. It is a
process that can take anywhere from a few weeks to several months. To
prove that the person was recruited at an age below 18, the ILO must find
official proof-of-age documentation.

“In Myanmar [Burma] that is not always easy. A lot of families do not have
birth certificates and in many poorer families the kids are not in the
formal schooling system,” Marshall said.

Before the ILO, Marshall said a lot of citizens thought child recruitment
was a fact of life and did nothing. Others knew it was wrong but were too
scared to raise the issue.

Advocacy group Human Rights Education Institute of Burma (HREIB) director
Aung Myo Min said that this fear of reprisal was still deeply rooted,
which was why the number of cases reported to the ILO failed to reflect
the true extent of the problem. He recalled instances in which individuals
were arrested, harassed or intimidated by officials for reporting the
existence of child soldiers in the past.

“The ILO’s rate is successful but think about the hundreds of cases that
are never reported to the ILO,” Aung Myo Min said.

He added his concern that the military regime’s newfound enlightenment on
the issue may be disingenuous.

“They just want to save face because of international attention on the use
of child soldiers by the army,” he said. “If they really wanted to change
it, blaming their own army is not enough. They have the power and the
responsibility to actually stop the use of child soldiers, prevent the
children from entering into the camps and take legal action against those
who recruit the children into the army.”

____________________________________

July 2, Xinhua General News Service
Myanmar forest coverage falls to 41 pct in 2010

Myanmar's forest coverage fell to 41 percent of the country's total land
area in 2010, depleting by 14 percentage points in three-and-a-half
decades since 1975, the local Biweekly Eleven News quoted the Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO) as reporting Friday.

The percentage dropped from 65 percent in 1925, 57 percent in 1958, 52.7
percent in 1975 and 52.3 percent in 2000, the Forest Department's figures
also showed.

The department attributed the depletion of forest mainly to the excessive
extraction of timber.

In an effort to prevent forest depletion, the department has planned to
reduce timber production and export during this fiscal year of 2010-11,
which began in April.

Myanmar possesses many kinds of natural forests such as fresh- water
forest, salt-water forest, pine forest, deciduous forest, evergreen forest
and so on.

As efforts to prevent forest depletion, the Myanmar authorities have also
been implementing some reforestation projects by granting local private
companies to grow teak and hardwood with land allotted for them for the
purpose since 2005.

Moreover, Myanmar is implementing a 30-year plan involving the
participation of private companies.

According to the National Commission for Environmental Affairs (NCEA), the
rate of forest depletion in Myanmar in 2000-05 was as high as 466,000
hectares, standing as the fourth most forest depleting country in the
world after Brazil, Indonesia and Sudan.

There are 155,340 square-kilometers of reserve forests and protected
public forests in Myanmar with 52,650 hectares of forest plantations,
statistics showed.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

July 2, Irrawaddy
DKBA, KNU held secret peace talks - Lawi Weng

Secret peace talks between the Karen National Union (KNU) and the
Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) were held  in Kanchanaburi Province
in Thailand in June, according to sources close to the KNU.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Friday, a KNU source in the Three Pagodas
Pass area, said, “The peace talks were held from June 17 to 23 in
Kanchanaburi. Three leaders from DKBA and two from the KNU took part in
the talks.”

The three DKBA leaders reportedly included influential Buddhist Abbot
Ashin Thuzana; Col Lah Pwe, better known as Mr. Beard; and Saw Naw Tayar,
a military official. Two KNU leaders, Gen Mu Tu, the commander in chief of
the KNLA, and a KNU military officer known as Oliver, also took part.

David Takapaw, the deputy KNU chairman, told The Irrawaddy that he had no
information about the talks. He said that the KNU district administration
may have initiated the talks and did not have to report to headquarters
until a substantive agreement had been achieved.

Chit Thu, the commander of DKBA Brigade 999, said on June 26 at a ceremony
honoring fallen DKBA comrades that he favored a halt to the fighting
between the DKBA and KNU. He made no mention of peace talks with the KNU
at the ceremony.

Observers have said that the Burmese junta's pressure on the DKBA to
transform into a border guard force (BGF) may be pushing the DKBA to
settle its differences and join forces.

The military junta has set a final deadline of Aug. 10 for the DKBA to
join the BGF. Observers say that some higher DKBA officials favor joining
the BGF.

Nai Kao Rot, the former deputy army chief of the New Mon State Party said
that the junta's Southeast Regional Command is monitoring the peace talks
and watching the troop movements of the two groups.

Maj-Gen Thet Naing Win of the Southeast Regional Commander reportedly has
ordered a government battalion in the Three Pagodas Pass area to observe
the two ethnic groups' activities.

“They are worried that fighting could break out during the election if the
two groups join forces,” Nai Kao Rot  said.

The DKBA joined forces with Burmese military troops to fight against the
KNU after it split from the KNU and signed a cease-fire with the junta in
1995.

The DKBA and KNU also held secret peace talks early in October, but the
talks failed and the two armies again clashed.

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

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

The Burmese junta has put pressure on all ethnic cease-fire groups to
transform their army into a BGF for more than one year. April 22 was the
last deadline. Many ethnic groups remain defiant and refuse to accept the
order.

____________________________________

July 2, Democratic Voice of Burma
Dhaka delays controversial gas project - Francis Wade

Bangladesh will not proceed with plans to explore for oil and gas in the
Bay of Bengal until a dispute over maritime boundaries with Burma is
resolved.

Arbitration will continue and the project will aim to resume in four
years, Bangladesh’s foreign minister Dipu Moni told parliament on
Wednesday. The UN is brokering the mediation, but Dhaka will push for
direct talks with Burma as well.

The ownership of around 150,000 km2 of offshore territory is being claimed
by both countries, and the fiery dispute has raged over several years; in
November 2008 the Burmese government effectively sold lucrative gas
blocks, claimed by Bangladesh, for exploration to a South Korean company,
triggering a naval standoff.

It peaked in October last year when Bangladeshi and Burmese warships lined
up against one another in the Bay of Bengal, with Bangladesh saying it
would do whatever it could to “protect the nation’s assets.

Although Dhaka has said that “resource constraints” in the country warrant
immediate exploration, it acknowledges that the dispute must be resolved
until any exploration is undertaken. Legal documents have been sent by
Bangladesh to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS),
which is mediating the affair.

International law of the sea stipulates that a country’s exclusive
economic zone (EEZ) stretches 200 nautical miles from the coast. This has
resulted in overlapping claims between the two countries, while Bangladesh
is also at loggerheads with India over a similar dispute involving
offshore oil and gas blocks.

Bangladesh claims ownership of 28 oil and gas blocks, while India and
Burma say they have the rights to 17 blocks in the disputed waters of the
Bay of Bengal.

Bangladesh’s 160 million-strong population is hungry for energy: the
country suffers frequent electricity shortages and its current energy
reserves cannot cater for a swelling population crammed into an area the
size of Burma’s northeastern Shan state.

Burma on the other hand is eyeing its export market, with neighbouring
Thailand a keen recipient of its gas. Official government statistics claim
that Burma owns 90 Trillion Cubic Feet (TCF) of gas, although outside
estimates are far less, at around 20 TCF. Vast areas however remain
unexplored, and the overlapping claims of Bangladesh and Burma offshore
blocks are thought to be healthy.

The Burmese government in March this year urged a redrawing of the
boundary demarcation with Bangladesh, and Dhaka responded that it would
weigh up the proposal. Burma is due to respond to the ITLOS by 1  December
this year.

____________________________________

July 2, The Nation (Thailand)
Burma-border public hearing kicks off - Supalak Ganjanakhundee


The Foreign Ministry yesterday launched a public hearing on boundary
demarcation in preparation for the resumption of negotiations with Burma.

The Thailand-Burma Joint Boundary Committee (JBC), set up since 1993 to
take care of boundary demarcation, has left many issues unsettled on the
border since its previous meeting in 2005.

The ministry is consulting Burma to resume the meeting of the committee to
push forward the demarcation, chief of Thailand's JBC, Vasin Teeravechyan,
said.

Of the 2,401-kilometre boundary with Burma, only 60km have already been
demarcated while the remaining have yet to be cleared.

The Thai-Burma boundary was set by the British-Siam treaties. The JBC only
needs to survey and mark the boundary in accordance with the treaties.

However, both sides remain with no common ground on the terms of reference
for the survey and demarcation of the boundary, Vasin said.

Burma, which agreed to draft the terms of reference during a previous JBC
meeting in 2005, has not yet proposed the draft or called the next
meeting, which was supposed to have been in 2007.

Vasin met his counterpart – Burma's deputy foreign minister Maung Myint
who chairs Burma's JBC – recently when Maung stopped over in Bangkok to
explore the possibility of resuming border negotiations.

"We are seeking ways to continue communication on the issue at least in an
informal way until we can resume the formal meeting of the JBC," Vasin
said.

Both countries need to talk urgently on the border problems at the Moei
and Chan rivers, where erosion is affecting the boundary line, he said.

There are at least six locations along the border where both countries
have difficulties in demarcation due to change in natural geography,
construction by local people, and differ ent interpretation of treaties
and maps.

The six locations included Kuteng-Nayong, Doi Lang-Doi Huay Ha, Moei
River, Mae Konken, Three Pagoda and Ta Yim Island, according to Colonel
Chakhon Bounpakdi of the Royal Thai Survey Department.

While engaging with Burma to resume border talks, the JBC has also
prepared a negotiation framework for Parliament's reading as required by
Article 190 of the Constitution.

The draft of a negotiation framework is now awaiting Cabinet's
consideration before submission for parliamentary reading, Vasin said.

A public hearing yesterday at Mahidol University's Kanchanaburi campus was
part of the constitutional process to take into account local input.

Many local residents at the hearing raised issues such as development
plans in the disputed area of the Three Pagodas pass. Local people want a
permanent checkpoint there but authorities cannot decide where it should
be placed because of the unclear boundary.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

July 2, Christian Science Monitor
What stigma? Burma (Myanmar) draws energy-hungry neighbors

Activists who pressured Western companies to boycott Burma (Myanmar) are
now preparing to battle Asian firms eager for Burma’s oil and gas.

Six months ago, a construction crew showed up in this sleepy Burmese
backwater. Villagers watched the crew put down a black pipeline under
their rice fields, on its way north to power-hungry Rangoon (Yangon), the
old capital.

The pipeline opened June 12 to acclaim in Burma’s largest city, where
households are lucky to get six hours of electricity a day. For villagers
living on the pipeline route, the benefits are less clear. At a local
store, the only power comes from an old car battery hooked up to a single
bulb. Nobody has electricity at home. “The gas is not for us,” says a
farmer.

But the villagers were lucky in one respect: Nobody had to move off their
land to make way for the pipeline.

Elsewhere in military-ruled Burma (Myanmar), authorities have seized land
for energy projects that are increasingly attractive to Asian oil
companies unhindered by recent Western sanctions. When the wells are
turned on and the energy is exported to richer countries, local
communities are often left landless and in the dark.

The pipeline to Rangoon will give more Burmese citizens access to a gas
field operated by France-based Total and US-based Chevron that, since
1998, had already been supplying 30 percent of Thailand’s electricity
supply via a separate pipeline. Not only has the bulk of gas been
exported, but Total and Chevron have been dogged by allegations of human
rights abuses over the pipeline's $1.3 billion construction. In 2005, the
companies paid out-of-court settlements to plaintiffs in separate lawsuits
alleging complicity in the abuses.

But that project pales in comparison to a new Asian-backed pipeline
project that is much bigger and potentially more disruptive than any
predecessor, according to US- and Thailand-based activists.

Chinese, South Korean, and Indian energy companies are investing in a gas
terminal and an oil tanker dock at the Shwe Gas field in western Arakan
state, from where two pipelines will be built to transport Burmese natural
gas and imported crude oil to southern China. Construction began in late
2009 and is expected to complete in 2013.

About 100 families have already lost their land to developers, who have
paid them little or no compensation, says Wong Aung, a coordinator for the
Shwe Gas Movement in Thailand, which opposes the project. Instead they are
left to search for vacant land nearby where they can resettle. Many more
living inland on the pipeline route face the risk of land confiscation and
forced labor by security forces, Wong Aung warns.

"We’d like the companies to suspend the project until we have a
democratically elected government in Burma where people can genuinely
participate,” he says.

A highly prized pipeline

The Shwe Gas field is close to the border with Bangladesh and is operated
by South Korean Daewoo International. The discovery in 2004 of large
offshore reserves attracted India’s government, which proposed its own
pipeline via Bangladesh. This plan bogged down over concerns by Indian
officials that Bangladesh wasn’t a secure route, says Marie Lall, an
associate fellow at Chatham House in London who has studied the project.

As India dithered, China swooped in with its proposal of twin pipelines in
2007. The first will transport gas from Daewoo-operated gas fields. The
second is designed to carry some 442,000 barrels a day of crude oil,
giving China an alternative route for cargoes from Africa and the Middle
East, which must travel by sea through the congested Malacca Straits.
Security analysts say Beijing wants to lessen its dependence on this route
for its essential energy supplies.

The pipelines cross some 600 miles of Burmese territory, including
mountainous zones and areas patrolled by armed militia. By contrast, the
Burmese section of the Total’s onshore pipeline is 40 miles.

“It’s going to be the most complicated and hazardous terrain for a
pipeline that China has ever encountered,” says Ms. Lall.
Activists gear up

In recent years, the International Labor Organization (ILO) has criticized
Burma over the practice of forced labor by the military, government
agencies, and private companies. Activists say local residents are often
coerced to work unpaid on massive infrastructure projects such as road
building and energy pipelines.

Steve Marshall, an ILO official in Burma, says he has proposed to the
government that it informs local authorities and local communities along
the pipeline route that such abuses won’t be tolerated. He says he has
also discussed labor issues with Daewoo, the gas operator, but hasn’t
given any direct advice on their project.

For activists who successfully convinced major Western brands like Nike
and Pepsi to boycott the country in the late-1990s, and who shined a
spotlight on the ethics of Western oil firms operating in the country, the
onrush of Asian energy companies poses new challenges. Burma’s human
rights record seems unlikely to deter China National Petroleum
Corporation, the pipeline operator.

Activists say they are lobbying overseas investors and other stakeholders
in Asia, Europe, and the US to insist on accountability in the project and
ensure that the rights of ordinary Burmese are respected.

“There are creative ways to get companies to do the right thing,” says
Matthew Smith, a spokesperson for Earthrights International, the
Washington-based group that sued Total and Unocal on behalf of Burmese
victims.

____________________________________

July 2, Irrawaddy
Jade, jewelry show has good sales - Nayee Lin Latt

About 2,100 lots of jade have been sold at a special gems emporium at
Myanmar Convention Center in Rangoon, which runs from June 25 to July 7,
according to sources close to gem dealers.

Buyers inspect the jade stones offered for sale by the Burmese government
at the annual gem show in Rangoon. (Photo: Myat Moe Maung/ The Irrawaddy)
A total of 11,500 lots of jade are being shown at the emporium and about
300 national and private jewelry companies have participated. This is the
48th jewelry event at the emporium.

“Most of the jade stones are own by the government,” said a jewelry
merchant. “We sell jewelry.”

Another gem dealer said: “We can't rely on domestic customers
economically. But, many foreigners come to buy the gems when we have
special show like this. Both private jewelery shops and the government
benefit from the sale.”

Burma earned more than 400 million euros from the sale of about 7,000 lots
of jade and gems at a gems emporium in March 2001, according to the
Myanmar Convention Center.
CA billboard advertisement for the jade and gem show at the Myanmar
Convention Center in Rangoon. (Photo: Myat Moe Maung/ The Irrawaddy)

Burma is one of the world's most well-known producers of rubies, diamonds,
pearls, sapphires and other gems.

Burma produced 32,921 tons of jade; 18,728 million carats of gems; and 754
kilograms of pearls and other gems in the 2008-2009 fiscal year, according
to the government's Central Statistical Organization.  Gem shows began in
1964.

____________________________________

July 2, Cardline
Myanmar Rolling Out Country's First Bankcards - Ankush Chibber

Citizens of Myanmar soon will be able to obtain and use bankcards for the
first time, according to local media reports.

The Myanmar Economic Bank and soon-to-be-opened private banks will be
allowed to issue magnetic stripe credit, debit and smart cards, the
Central Bank of Myanmar noted in a statement, which also said cards
already are available at a few Myanmar Economic branches.

Details regarding merchant acceptance of cards were unavailable.

Customers may obtain the cards after opening an account with the bank by
depositing 1 million kyat (US$152,000 or 124,000 euros). Private-bank
customers need only have a savings account.

According to an official at the India-base State Bank of India, which
hopes to open operations in Myanmar, the move to issuing cards is a big
step given that the banking system in that country is very inefficient and
lacks modern banking procedures.

"You cannot even open an account there with ease," he says. "Banks, under
orders from the military junta, ask for at least two guarantors."

According many information sites on the banking sector in Myanmar, private
banks in Burma were allowed to organize in 1990. But in 2003, the military
government set off a banking crisis by closing a dozen private banks.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

July 2, Democratic Voice of Burma
Burmese rebels in India plea bargain - Joseph Allchin

A group of Burmese ethnic rebels currently held in an Indian jail will
next week enter into a plea bargain in what could be a momentous final
stretch in a marathon 12-year fight for justice.

The group, composed of 10 fighters from the Karen National Union (KNU) and
24 from the now-defunct National Unity Party of Arakan (NUPA), were lured
in 1998 to the Indian Andaman Islands by an Indian intelligence officer
named Colonel Grewal, who offered them a safe haven. He has since
disappeared, and evidence suggests he may have been a double agent working
for the Burmese military.

On arriving on Indian soil the group were accused of weapons smuggling;
six of the men were murdered by Indian security forces and the rest placed
in detention, in what has come to be known as Operation Leech.

Their trial lawyer, Akshay Sharma, speaking exclusively to DVB in Delhi
yesterday, said that use of the plea bargain – a predominantly western
legal concept – was exceptionally rare in India, but was beneficial to all
parties.

Moreover, human rights lawyer and chief advocate on the case, Nandita
Haksar, said that “the Indian intelligence community are on trial here”.
Indeed an intelligence officer, speaking under condition of anonymity, was
quoted in the Indian press several months after the incident as saying
that defense authorities were “deliberately adopting dilatory tactics”.

The implications of guilt for the Indian security services appeared in
court after a 10-year wait for a single charge sheet to be produced, with
evidence that Sharma said was “full of discrepancies”.

Key evidence such as the serial numbers of the supposedly smuggled weapons
did not match, whilst “security reasons” stopped the Indian security
services from bringing the explosives that the accused were charged with
possessing to the Kolkata trial.

Lawyers have therefore suggested that the 12-year wait for a verdict and
the “grey areas” have likely induced both prosecution and defence to for
the plea bargain. One of the most telling of these “grey areas” was the
failure by India’s own Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to produce
key witnesses, such Colonel Grewal, the initial contact person for the
freedom fighters. This was despite requests by the Indian state’s primary
investigative bodies to produce this witness.

While the acquittal of the weapons smuggling charges has been
“beneficial”, Haksar claimed that they conceal an ugly truth; a
“hypocrisy” at the heart of Indian democracy. For whilst the 34 may soon
walk free, it is now corroborated that the Indian security services have
the blood of at least six Burmese rebels on their hands, while two more
who were under custody “disappeared” during the course of the trial.

Their disappearance appears to be a misnomer when one considers the
severity of the initial charges the Burmese were accused of. The charge of
‘waging war against the Indian state’ – a similar indictment to one
brought on the Mumbai bombers – carries the maximum penalty of death, but
they still managed to disappear, and no-one seems able to divulge their
whereabouts, or indeed whether they are still alive. Moreoever, one of the
early trial lawyers, T. Vasnatha, was murdered in what Sharma believes was
an act of the Indian intelligence services.

____________________________________

July 2, The Australian
Burmese minority left to languish - Debbie Guest

The Uniting Church raised the plight of a Muslim minority group from Burma
with Immigration Minister Chris Evans last month because of lengthy delays
in processing their claims for asylum.

After visiting some of the Rohingyas detained at Christmas Island, the
church and the Coalition for Asylum-Seekers, Refugees and Detainees
discussed their concerns with Senator Evans

``We raised the issue of the length of time that people had been
processed, given that one of (the Department of Immigration and
Citizenship's) detention values is to do things in the shortest amount of
time,'' coalition chairwoman Rosemary Hudson Miller said.

She said the Rohingyas were concerned and upset by the long time they had
been detained and had no idea how much longer their claims would take.

Ms Hudson Miller said it was known that the longer people were detained,
the more they were prone to mental illness.

A spokeswoman for Senator Evans said all asylum seekers were subject to
rigorous identity, health and security checks before a final assessment of
their refugee status could be made.

Nearly 250,000 Rohingyas fled from western Burma into neighbouring
Bangladesh in the 1990s to escape persecution.

``To be a minority group in Burma is to draw a short straw in the world,''
Pamela Curr, campaign co-ordinator for the Asylum-Seeker Resource Centre,
said.

She said the minority had faced horrific persecution by the Burmese
government, which had tortured them and used them as weapons carriers for
the military.

The Burmese government has refused to recognise the minority, making them
virtually stateless in their own country.

The UN High Commission for Refugees says many of the Rohingyas in exile in
Malaysia are targeted by immigration authorities.

The Department of Immigration and Citizenship says there has recently been
a rise in the number of Rohingyas claiming asylum in Australia.