BurmaNet News, July 30, 2010

[Editor]

July 30, 2010 Issue #4010


INSIDE BURMA
Irrawaddy: NLD members meet ILO representative in Rangoon

BUSINESS / TRADE
Bangkok Post: More reliance on Burma
China People’s Daily: China's largest stainless steel maker invests in
Myanmar nickel mine

ASEAN
VOV News: Myanmar receives ASEAN Committee’s Presidency

REGIONAL
Irrawaddy: Burmese rank No. 1 in Malaysia detention center deaths

INTERNATIONAL
AP: US 'carefully watching' Myanmar-NKorea talks
Mizzima News: Burma Campaign urges Cameron to press India on Burmese issues
DVB: Burma parties wary of US sanctions
Sampsonia Way (US): From Burma to Brentwood: Refugees create a sense of
community in Pittsburgh

OPINION / OTHER
OpenDemocracy: Myanmar’s 2010 elections: a human rights perspective –
Benjamin Zawacki
Huffington Post (US): An unchanging Burma vs. An immovable force for good
– Richard Walden

INTERVIEWS
Irrawaddy: Getting the facts straight about 'The Dear Leader'



____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

July 30, Irrawaddy
NLD members meet ILO representative in Rangoon – Ko Htwe

Several leading members of Burma's disbanded National League for Democracy
(NLD) raised nearly 40 complaints of forced labor, underage recruitment
and land confiscation at a meeting with a representative of the
International Labour Organization (ILO) in Rangoon on Thursday.

Executive member Win Tin told The Irrawaddy that the ILO would cooperate
with the NLD members and "will solve what they can."

Win Tin was accompanied at the meeting by NLD deputy chairman Tin Oo and
executive members Than Tun and Nyan Win.

 “The meeting was constructive,” said the ILO representative, liaison
officer Steve Marshall, in a phone interview with The Irrawaddy on
Friday.

Marshall described the NLD members as "individuals" to avoid any political
association. The NLD was disbanded in early May after the party decided
not to contest the ruling junta’s upcoming election. Its remaining members
say the party concerns itself now with humanitarian, rather than
political, matters.

“We are always very happy to discuss with Myanmar [Burmese] residents the
government policy on forced labor and how they and others can work toward
the elimination of forced labor," Marshall said.

The government is working with the ILO on the issue and and progress has
been made in a number of areas, Marshall said.

“But there is still an awful lot more to be done,” he added.

Marshall said that the government has been responding very efficiently and
positively to complaints regarding underage recruitment.

“We have had some indications from around the country that the use of
forced labor by the civilian authorities [and] the SPDC [State Peace and
Development Council] is reducing,” said Marshall. “It’s not stopped, it
still is an issue, but it is starting to reduce.”

The ILO is the only body officially mandated to tackle the child soldier
problem in Burma. It received 80 complaints in 2009, while 70 were
recorded between January and May, 2010.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

July 30, Bangkok Post
More reliance on Burma

Thailand expects to buy more gas and electricity from Burma in order to
secure supplies as domestic resources become depleted, says Energy
Minister Wannarat Channukul.

Thailand has been buying gas from Burma since the late 1990s. The Yadana
and Yetagun offshore gas fields have an output of 400 and 565 million
cubic feet per day (mmscfd) respectively.

In three years Thailand will begin receiving supplies from the new Sawtika
Block or M9. PTT Plc, Thailand's sole natural gas seller, will sign a
natural gas purchase contract today with Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise
(MOGE) in Burma's capital city Naypyidaw.

Under the contract, Thailand will receive gas from M9 at a rate of 240
mmscfd, equal to 2.4 billion litres of oil per day, by the end of 2013.
Gas from M9 will mainly be used by the transport sector.

The PTT subsidiary PTT Exploration and Production Plc, the production
operator of M9, hopes to gain exploration and production rights for
Burma's other new petroleum blocks such as M3, M4, M7 and M11.

Mr Wannarat said that if the two countries could agree on a plan, Burmese
natural gas would serve demand in Thailand over the next 10 years as
petroleum resources in the Gulf of Thailand gradually dwindle. Domestic
reserves will last only another 23 years, he estimated.

Pornchai Rujiprapha, the permanent secretary of the Energy Ministry, said
Thailand also hoped to buy more hydroelectric power from Burma's Salween
River. There is potential to build two hydropower plants on the river: the
1,200-megawatt Hat Gyi Dam and the 7,000-MW Tasang Dam.

In 2006, Sinohydro signed a memorandum of understanding with Burma for the
US$1-billion Hat Gyi dam located along the Thai-Burma border. Negotiations
over the shareholding structure of the project's developer are expected to
conclude in May next year.

Permsak Shevawattananon, PTT's senior executive vice-president for natural
gas business, said PTT had to seek more gas reserves due to a projected
rise in Thai demand to 4,821 mmscfd in 2014 and 5,542 mmscfd in 2020 from
3,900 at present.

"Demand for gas is rising not only in power and industrial sectors but
also in transport so we need to find more resources overseas," said Mr
Permsak.

In the future if nuclear- and coal-fired power plants cannot start
construction due to community fears over environmental issues, then even
more reserves would be needed, he added.

____________________________________

July 30, China People’s Daily
China's largest stainless steel maker invests in Myanmar nickel mine

Taiyuan Iron and Steel Group (TISCO) signed an agreement with China
Nonferrous Metal Mining Group (CNMC) on July 26 to jointly develop the
Tagaung Taung nickel mining project in Myanmar, according to an
announcement on TISCO's Web site on July 29.

CNMC Nickel, a wholly-owned subsidiary of CNMC, was previously in charge
of developing the Tagaung Taung nickel mine. After signing the agreement,
TISCO will inject capital into CNMC Nickel to acquire a certain share in
the increased capital stock.

The Tagaung Taung nickel mine marks the largest mining project in which
China has ever cooperated with Myanmar. The mine has a reserve of more
than 30 million tons of high-grade nickel ore containing some 700,000 tons
of nickel.

The project, which will be in operation from 2011 to 2031, will attract an
investment totaling 800 million U.S. dollars and produce 85,000 tons of
nickel-iron containing 22,000 tons of nickel a year. In addition, the
construction of mining, smelting and service facilities is well under way.

Nickel is a scarce strategic resource for almost all countries, and China
is no exception. TISCO, the world's largest stainless steel manufacturer,
alone consumes at least 100,000 tons of nickel a year.

"As the most important raw material for stainless steel production, nickel
takes up a large portion of production costs," said Zeng Jiesheng, an
analyst at MySteel.com, a steel market research and analysis firm.

TISCO said that the Tagaung Taung nickel mine project will greatly
alleviate China's nickel shortage and reduce domestic stainless steel
producers' risks from fluctuations in nickel prices, and it is actively
carrying out mining projects in the Philippines, Indonesia, Australia and
other countries.

____________________________________
ASEAN

July 30, VOV News
Myanmar receives ASEAN Committee’s Presidency

The Vietnam Embassy in the Republic of Korea officially held a ceremony to
hand over the ASEAN Committee’s Presidency in the country to the Myanmar
Ambassador on July 29.

Speaking at the ceremony, Ambassador Tran Trong Toan, Chairman of the
ASEAN Committee said that for the past six months, Vietnam has been
actively involved in organising and coordinating other ASEAN partners,
including the Republic of Korea and the ASEAN-RoK Centre to boost trade,
tourism as well as cultural exchanges.

The Vietnamese Embassy also met with the ASEAN-RoK Centre to discuss the
region’s cultural diversity and potential for tourism. They also
successfully held the ASEAN-RoK Contemporary Art Exhibition.

The ASEAN Committee in the Republic of Korea has launched the ASEAN Corner
project, an ASEAN box on its website and has organised camping tours for
schools around the country.

Ambassador Toan then presented the ASEAN flag to Myanmar’s Ambassador, Myo
Lwin.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

July 30, Irrawaddy
Burmese rank No. 1 in Malaysia detention center deaths – Lawi Weng

Thirty-two Burmese detainees died while in custody in Immigration
Detention Center in Malaysia, the highest number of foreign detainee
deaths, according to Malaysia's minister of home affairs.

Minister of Home Affairs Hishammuddin Tun Hussein said a total of 78
foreign detainees died during 2005 to 2009 in Immigration Detention
Centers.

The foreign detainees included citizens from Burma, Indonesia, India,
Bangladesh, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Nigeria, Togo, Pakistan, Liberia
and the Philippines. The minister did not attribute the cause of death
among the detainees.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Thursday, Tenne Lee, a refugee coordinator
from Suara Rakyat Malaysia (SUARAM) who works on human rights issues in
Malaysia, said, “What we know about the cause of the deaths is that most
of them died because of medical reasons.”

Tenne Lee said that there is not adequate medical treatment while
detainees are in custody. Even if the detainees have medicine from a
hospital when they enter a detention center, the medicine is confiscated,
she said.

“We do monitor things if we get information about deaths. We do pressure
the government, but we don't have power to do investigations,” she said.
“It is hard to know the exact number of  deaths. The government is not
accountable.”

According to a press release from the Malaysian Bar Council in 2009, 1,300
foreigners died in detention centers during the past six years.

Some Burmese human rights activists in Malaysia say that the number of
detainee deaths is much higher than acknowledged by the Ministry of Home
Affairs.

Nai Roi Mon, who works with Mon detainees in Kuala Lumpur and is a member
of the Mon Refugee office in Malaysia, said: “I doubt their numbers. As I
remember, at least 100 Burmese died  in detention centers during the past
five years.”

He said that many of detainees died because they were denied medical
treatment when needed.

There are about 500,000 Burmese migrants in Malaysia, legally and
illegally. Burmese detainees are the largest group in detention centers.

There are 28 Immigration Detention Centers in Malaysia. Human rights
advocates say there are constant complaints of inadequate food, water and
unsanitary conditions. Detainees are not given clothing.

Advocates say that family members who try to bring cases to court are
discouraged by governmental delay. There has never been a successful case
of prosecution for negligence, said Tenne Lee. She said children are not
separated from adults in detention centers.

According to a 2009 SUARAM report titled “Malaysia Civil and Political
Rights Overview,” nine Burmese detainees died in detention centers from
May to August last year due to an outbreak of Leptospirosis (an infectious
disease caused by contaminated water or food which has been infected with
rodent urine).

Human rights groups and civil society groups highlighted the outbreak of
the disease in detention centers, but they say the government has been
slow to respond.

Malaysia is ranked as one of the worst countries for refugees by the
international watchdog, the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants.
Malaysia also ranks poorly among countries in meeting the minimum
standards for the elimination of human trafficking, according to the US
State Department.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

July 30, Associated Press
US 'carefully watching' Myanmar-NKorea talks

Yangon – The U.S. said it is carefully watching the budding secretive
relationship between Myanmar and North Korea for signs of nuclear
cooperation, as official talks between the authoritarian regimes entered a
second day Friday.

North Korea's Foreign Minister Pak Ui Chun's four-day visit to Myanmar is
shrouded in secrecy. Myanmar has not officially announced the visit is
taking place, and few details have leaked out about the nature of the
trip, which is Pak's first since the two countries resumed diplomatic ties
in 2007.

Asked to comment on the visit, U.S. State Department spokesman P.J.
Crowley urged Myanmar to adhere to U.N. sanctions on North Korea that
include restrictions on arms transactions.

"North Korea is a serial proliferator. North Korea is engaged in
significant illicit activity. Burma, like other countries around the
world, has obligations, and we expect Burma to live up to those
obligations," he told reporters Thursday in Washington. He said the lack
of transparency surrounding their ties makes it difficult to assess if
North Korea is indulging in nuclear proliferation with Myanmar, which is
also known as Burma.

"It is something that is of concern to us, given North Korea's historical
record. And it is something that we continue to watch very carefully,"
Crowley said.

Pak went Friday to the junta's headquarters in the administrative capital
of Naypyitaw to meet his Myanmar counterpart, Nyan Win, as well as Prime
Minister Thein Sein, diplomats and officials said on condition of
anonymity to stay below the junta's radar.
The talks begin the substantive part of Pak's visit after since
sightseeing on Thursday in Yangon, the biggest city, where he visited the
famed Shwedagon Pagoda and the National Museum.

It was not known if Pak would meet junta chief Senior Gen. Than Shwe who
returned Thursday from a visit to India.

Myanmar and North Korea are two of Asia's most authoritarian regimes, and
both face sanctions by the West. They have had increasingly close ties in
recent years, especially in military affairs, and there are fears
Pyongyang is supplying the army-led Southeast Asian regime with nuclear
technology.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton raised concerns about
Myanmar at a security meeting last week with senior Asian officials.

"We continue to be concerned by the reports that Burma may be seeking
assistance from North Korea with regard to a nuclear program," Clinton
said.

Myanmar denies it is pursuing a nuclear weapons program. Last month the
junta dismissed reports on the subject as coming from "army deserters,
defectors and dissidents."

Myanmar severed diplomatic relations with North Korea in 1983, following a
fatal bombing attack during a visit by South Korea's then-President Chun
Doo-hwan that killed 21 people, including four South Korean Cabinet
ministers.

Three North Korean commandos involved in the bombing were detained one
blew himself up during his arrest, a second was hanged and a third died in
prison in 2008.
____________________________________

July 30, Mizzima News
Burma Campaign urges Cameron to press India on Burmese issues – Kyaw Mya

New Delhi – Burma Campaign UK has called on British Prime Minister David
Cameron and Foreign Secretary William Hague to raise Burmese issues in
meetings with their Indian counterparts during their three-day visit to
India, according to the rights group.

Among those travelling with Cameron are finance minister George Osborne,
Business Secretary Vince Cable and senior British business leaders, who
arrived India on Tuesday as the Burmese junta’s entourage of more than 80
ministers and their wives led by Senior General Than Swe concluded its
five-day tour of the country.

Zoya Phan, international co-ordinator at Burma Campaign UK told Mizzima:
“We have asked the British Prime Minister David Cameron and Foreign
Secretary William Hague to raise Burma issues with the Indian Government
to urge 
 [it] to promote human rights and democracy in Burma.”

She added “We do not know exactly what they will be talking about but I
hope that Cameron prioritises the Burma situation with the world’s largest
democracy, India”

Burma Campaign UK director Mark Farmaner said, “We understand that William
Hague and David Cameron will both be raising the situation in Burma in
meetings with the Indian government, which is very welcome.”

“The British Government is very clear that they do not agree with the
approach that India is taking and that [London ] 
 sees that there should
be increased pressure on the dictatorship and that they don’t see the
Indian approach as being one that is effective in bringing about any real
change in Burma,” he said.

Cameron’s coalition entourage flew in to Bangalore in the southern Indian
state of Karnataka, where many leading British firms have offices. They
visited India’s state –run Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL), the Infosys campus
at Electronic City, an Indian Ministry of Defence manufacturing unit and
met the governor of Karnataka before flying to New Delhi yesterday.

Barclays, Vodafone, SAB Miller and English Premier League bosses are among
the business delegation while Cambridge and other academics and sporting
figures, including 2012 Olympics chairman Lord Coe, also made the trip.

While in Bangalore, the youngest of British prime ministers on Wednesday
presided over the signing of a contract worth a total of £700 million
(US$1.09 billion) between BAE Systems – the biggest defence contractor in
Europe – and Rolls Royce, and HAL, to build 57 BAE Hawk jet trainers under
licence.

The Cameron government’s delegation met Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan
Singh yesterday and held separate talks with President Pratibha Patil,
Vice-President  M. Hamid Ansari and External Affairs Minister S. M.
Krishna.

Meanwhile, the entourage of Burmese head of state Than Shwe, the leader of
the State Peace and Development Council of Burma, the junta’s name for
itself, was yesterday winding down a tour that had seen India open its
arms with the signing of a range of bilateral political, economic,
security and cultural pacts on Tuesday.

According to the Burma Campaign’s Mark Farmaner, India was concerned about
the growing clout its rival China was wielding in Burma, citing the warm
welcome for Than Shwe. The junta’s entourage began its visit to the
country on Sunday by offering prayers that day and Monday at the Mahabodhi
temple, scene of the Buddha’s enlightenment, in Bodhgaya in the eastern
state of Bihar.

Farmaner told Mizzima: “India is trying to get closer to the dictatorship
mainly because it wants to counter Chinese influence in Burma 
 India’s
policies towards Burma are a disgrace and without any principle and brings
shame to the country, and it will damage India’s reputation worldwide,” he
added.

“India main concern is about Chinese influence in Burma, but India is
making a mistake because they will never be able to compete with China,
diplomatically and  economically,” he said.

Farmaner further asserted that India in the long term was backing the
wrong horse.

“The strategy it has of moving closer to the regime will fail and so it
would be more sensible for India to support Burma’s democracy movement
because the generals will not be in charge forever. And India is making a
mistake by being such a strong supporter of the dictatorship in Burma.”

“I think they will look back on it [signing of pacts with the junta on
Tuesday] as a day of shame in their history,” Farmaner said.

Than Shwe and Singh signed deals for co-operation between their nations’
security forces to tackle terrorism and strengthen teamwork along India’s
northeastern border with Burma. They also settled on a road map for closer
economic engagement.

The neighbours share a 1,020-mile (1,640-kilometre) unfenced frontier,
which allows militants from northeast India to use the adjoining country
as a springboard for hit-and-run guerrilla strikes on Indian soldiers.

The Indian foreign ministry outlined the deals in a statement on Tuesday.
They are a “treaty on mutual assistance in criminal matters, a memorandum
of understanding regarding Indian grant assistance for implementation of
small development projects, an agreement for co-operation in the fields of
science and technology, a memorandum of understanding on information
co-operation and a memorandum of understanding for the conservation and
restoration of the Ananda Temple in Bagan [Pagan]”.

India has also offered US$60 million in finance for a revamp of the 140
mile Rhi-Tiddim road connecting Mizoram State and Burma, considered a
lifeline for boosting trade and commerce. It has also announced a grant of
US$10 million for Burma to buy agricultural machinery from India and US$6
million to upgrade the microwave link between Moreh in Manipur State and
Mandalay.

In response to India’s apparent disregard for the brutality the Burmese
regime represents, former leftist Samata Party president Jaya Jaitly,
expressed anger at New Delhi’s entertainment of Than Shwe. She had this
week protested against his visit with Burmese refugees in the capital.

“I feel very angry with what India is doing; India is showing itself not
to be big but to be even smaller than a dirty military dictatorship,” she
said.

“Today everybody wants trade and selfishness is convenient. Also the big
arms dealers likes to give guns to the [Burmese] military; this is a shame
particularly for a country that calls Mahatma Gandhi the father of the
nation,” she continued.

The critics of India’s acquiescence to the Burmese regime say New Delhi
has forgotten its role as the world’s largest democracy and its historic
support for Burmese pro-democracy forces.

The junta’s laws governing elections scheduled to take place later this
year in Burma have effectively banned Novel Peace laureate Aung San Suu
Kyi, who was also honoured by India with its equivalent humanitarian
prize, the Jawaharlal Nehru Award in 1993. Her National League for
Democracy party had its landslide victory in Burmese elections in 1990
unceremoniously rejected by the ruling military junta.

Britain meanwhile is one of the strongest supporters of Burmese political
reform after the United States and has sanctions against the military
regime and a global arms embargo. It is also a strong proponent for a
United Nations commission of inquiry on the war crimes and crimes against
humanity committed by the Burmese dictatorship.
____________________________________

July 30, Democratic Voice of Burma
Burma parties wary of US sanctions – Nay Htoo

A number of political parties running in Burma’s elections this year have
said that extended US sanctions will do little to affect the polls.

Observers, including US and EU governments, have decried the country’s
first elections in two decades as a sham aimed at cementing military rule
in Burma. Some 38 parties have registered for the polls, but only one can
seriously be considered part of the opposition, following the dissolution
of the National League for Democracy (NLD).

Khin Maung Swe, spokesperson for the National Democratic Force (NDF),
which was formed from the ashes of the NLD, said that the sanctions will
not force a change of the repressive laws that govern how parties
campaign, and which can participate in the elections.

“I think it would be more beneficial for Burma if the international
community pushes for a revision of the unfair laws, help to find a
solution to make the elections free for everyone and [push for] the
release of all political prisoners and allow them to join the elections,”
he said.

The ban on imports of Burmese produce to the US was last week extended for
another year after the Senate voted 99 to 1 in favour. Washington’s
sanctions regime on Burma harks back to 2003 when former president George
Bush enacted the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act.

Among the signatories was Jim Webb, the Virginia senator who has made two
trips to Burma in the past year where he met with opposition icon Aung San
Suu Kyi. He however has said in the past that US sanctions on Burma were
ineffective, a stance that drew the ire of members of Suu Kyi’s party.

The election laws announced in March appear to be one of several signs
that the Burmese junta has shirked US pressure to tighten its grip on
power. Aye Lwin, leader of the Union of Myanmar Federation of National
Politics (UMFNP), who took a leading role in the anti-sanctions campaign
in Burma, echoed the sentiment expressed by Khin Maung Swe.

“We see that even a well-informed nation like the US is misled on Burma.
If the US wants free and fair and clean elections in Burma, then they need
to welcome and give moral support on the individuals and groups striving
[for free and fair elections].”

No date has been set for the elections, although rumours have surfaced
that they will be held in October. The only information from the
government is that they will take place in the second half of this year.
Candidates have complained that little time is being given for them to
prepare, with constituencies yet to be announced.

“The parties should be given enough time for their structure formation,
member recruitment and explaining their policies to the people. The US
should emphasise issues like this and stress this to the Burmese
government,” Aye Lwin said.
____________________________________

July 30, Sampsonia Way (US)

>From Burma to Brentwood: Refugees create a sense of community in

Pittsburgh – Elizabeth Hoover

When Soe Naing’s youngest daughter Khin Mar Soe was born in 2001, he had
“no dreams for her,” he recalled. She was born in a refugee camp in the
Thailand-Burma border, one of an estimated 150,000 people living in nine
camps after fleeing from the brutality of the Burmese government. The
refugees inhabit a kind of political and economic no man’s land: they are
unable to work, unable to move freely past the barbed wire fences that
ring the camps, and—depending on the camp—unable to attend school.

Now, Soe Naing has another worry: saving enough for medical school
tuition. That’s a long way off. Khin Mar Soe is only 6, but she dreams of
being a doctor and is enjoying her new American school. She recently won a
prize for reading the most books in her grade. She came to Pittsburgh with
her parents and three older siblings two years ago as part of a
resettlement program through the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR.) Her family is part of a community of about 400 refugees
from Burma living in Pittsburgh, mostly concentrated in the Troy Hill
neighborhood and in the Prospect Park housing development in the suburb of
Brentwood.

On Monday nights, Grace Lutheran Church in Troy Hill hosts a Burmese
community night where families gather to play games, get help translating
mail, and collect donations from various organizations. Over the din of a
raucous game of duck-duck-goose, Soe Naing explains that his children now
want to be lawyers and engineers and that his 17-year-old son received a
scholarship for college through The Pittsburgh Promise. When asked if he
imagined his children would make it to college when they were still living
in the camps, he could only laugh, eyes shining with pride.

Since arriving in Pittsburgh, Soe Naing secured a job in housekeeping at a
Marriott hotel and has been learning English through the Greater
Pittsburgh Literacy Council. While his family seems to be thriving,
refugees face innumerable challenges during resettlement, including
navigating the language barrier, culture shock, and a lack of education.
The majority of the refugees from Burma who have resettled in Pittsburgh
are members of the Karen, a persecuted ethnic minority in Burma. The
conflict between the Burmese government and the Karen is one of the
world’s longest civil wars according to Jim Andrews of Irrawaddy magazine.

The BBC reports that the Burmese militaries are engaged in a campaign of
terror against the Karen and regularly attack their villages, burning them
down and scattering the inhabitants. Those who don’t escape are either
killed or forced into hard labor. The Karen National Union, a political
group that advocates for the Karen, accuses the Burmese government of
genocide. The conflict has created a protracted refugee situation; some
Karen will live their entire lives in a refugee camp with no work, no
school, and no hope for the future.

Hler Paw, now 24, entered a refugee camp when he was 2. His father, a
soldier who fought against the Burmese, was killed, and his mother is
“somewhere in the border area.” He described life in the camp: “It’s like
living in a human zoo.”

He applied for settlement in 2006 and landed in Pittsburgh in April 2007.
Refugees arrive here with nothing—no passport, no money, very few
belongings. One of two resettlement agencies—Catholic Charities of
Pittsburgh or Jewish Family & Children’s Service of Pittsburgh—meet the
refugees at the airport and provide them with a furnished apartment. These
agencies also help the refugees apply for welfare, find English classes,
look for work, and teach them some of the basics such as how to use the
bus and shop at Walmart.

“My first year here, I felt like I was floating in the air,” said Hler
Paw. “Everything was weird.” Because Hler Paw came from a camp with a
missionary school, he already knew English and JFCS hired him to be a case
manager working with his community. But his level of education is unusual
for a refugee. “In Burma [the Karen] don’t have a chance to study. They
just flee here and there and hide from the soldiers who burn down the
village, burn down the church, burn down the school,” he said.

Life on the run means many of the refugees aren’t literate even in their
own language. That can make learning English doubly hard. “The biggest
challenge is the language barrier,” said Elizabeth Heidenreich, a case
manager with Pittsburgh Refugee Center. While the adults struggle to learn
English, their younger children pick up the new language more easily
because of daily ESL classes at school. “This changes the dynamic of the
family,” Heidenreich said. “It puts pressure on a child to suddenly have
to deal with adult things like medical questions while the parents go from
being adults in charge to being someone who can’t communicate.”

The children are forced to negotiate between school, where they are
bullied for not being American enough, and home, where their parents are
concerned about them losing their Karen or Burmese culture. “The kids are
just trying to be kids,” Heidenreich added.

Teachers unfamiliar with Karen and Burmese culture sometimes compound the
problem, according to an after-school tutor. This tutor is an American who
has spent time in Burma. She asked that her name not be used because she
hopes to return to Burma and said the government searches for the names of
visa applicants on the Internet. She said her students here complained
that their teachers call them by the wrong names, but the teacher simply
didn’t realize that Burmese don’t use first and last names. Another
student remembered being humiliated on her first day of school. She came
in wearing thanaka, a white cosmetic paste made from ground bark. The
teacher told her it looked “like bird poo” and made her scrub it off.

Both adults and children live with the trauma of what they experienced in
Burma. The after-school tutor said her students have heard horror stories
of how the Burmese military would throw Karen babies into the air and use
them as target practice. She says many of her students express a desire to
return and fight the Burmese military.

The transition is just as hard for the adults. Unlike refugees who come
from urban areas, most Karen were rice farmers, a life that Heidenreich
described as “working really hard for two months and then waiting 10
months to work really hard for two months.” Or they have spent the past
10-15 years in a refugee camp, unable to work. They struggle with getting
to their jobs on time and communicating with their bosses. Hler Paw agreed
that the refugees have to adjust to the American work environment because
Burma doesn’t have the same kind of industry. “Bosses love us when we
start working,” he said. “We are really hard workers. Believe me.”

The language barrier limits their access to certain higher-paid jobs and
so they mainly work in jobs that don’t require communicating with the
general public. These include housekeeping, dry cleaning, maintenance, and
meatpacking. “They are working harder than they have ever worked and
barely making it,” said Heidenreich.

The language barrier can also have serious consequences for refugees who
need medical attention. Wazo Myint, a graduate student at the University
of Pittsburgh, has been working with public health issues in the Burmese
community here through JFCS and the Albert Schweitzer Fellowship, a
program to support young professionals working in public health. “I worry
about the refugees,” he said. “They are very vulnerable.” Wazo Myint was
born in Burma and came to the United Sates when he was 9 because his
father got a job. He grew up in Hmawbi, a town close to where many of the
refugees are from. “When my family came here, we struggled. But not to the
same degree,” he explained. “It’s kind of a personal crusade for me to
help the community.”

Wazo Myint travels with people to doctors’ offices to translate, tries to
connect refugees with resources, and helps them make appointments. Once he
and another volunteer spent the night in the hospital with a woman who had
just experienced a stillbirth. “We can’t solve all their problems,” he
said, “but we can try to connect with the clients and reassure them.”

While the resettlement agencies and other nonprofits try to provide
resources to the Burmese community, there have been efforts within the
community to create structures and organizations to become more
self-sufficient. In Prospect Park, there are four community leaders who
mediate disputes and help people solve problems before contacting the
resettlement agency. They also have an emergency contact system for people
who can’t use 911 because they don’t speak English. “Our community is very
close,” Hler Paw said. “We help each other.”

Working together, the community has also been able to find ways to
maintain cultural and religious practices. Burmese food is influenced by
both Chinese and Indian cuisine, so many ingredients can be found at
places like Lotus Food in the Strip District as well as local Indian
grocery stores. Heidenreich remembered being offered a durian, a large
exotic fruit with a strong odor, during a home visit. “I thought, where
the heck do you get a durian in the middle of Pittsburgh, but they had
it,” she said.

Heidenreich has also attended several parties where the families gather to
share food, play Karen music videos, and wear traditional dress. The
majority of Karens are Christian and they meet in each others’ homes for
prayer and Bible study. Because they have relationships with missionaries
in Burma, Grace Lutheran Church and Discovery Christian Church have been
able to provide Karen-language Bibles and hymnals for the community. They
also offer the occasional Karen-language service, which requires bringing
in a pastor from out of town. The Buddhist families have also organized
and have recently started a monastery. Now it is just an apartment in
Prospect Park with two monks, but they hope to construct their own
building and create a school.

Democracy is like a glass

Anu Oo can’t remember a time when his family wasn’t persecuted by the
Burmese military. He described how the military would take over his
village’s rice paddies, accusing the farmers of feeding Karen rebels.
Instead, they barely survived on rations until the militia forced them to
“relocate.” That meant living in the jungle.

When he was 11, he and his family made their way to a refugee camp, where
he lived until being resettled in Pittsburgh in 2006. He immediately fell
in love with Pittsburgh because the hills reminded him of the landscape in
Burma. “Our country is ruled by dictators, unlike America, which is ruled
by democracy,” he said through a translator. “In Burma, people are
prisoners by their own government. I was excited to come to America.”

Once in America, Anu Oo encountered many aspects of the American political
landscape: capitalism, labor disputes, labor rights, and the freedoms of
expression and association, among others. While working for a local steel
fabrication plant, he had his first experience with the American labor
movement when the Three Rivers Coalition for Justice helped workers
organize a strike there. In May of this year his name and the
organization’s actions captured the attention of the Post-Gazette, who
also quoted the plant president’s reaction to the strike.

In an interview with Sampsonia Way, Anu Oo described how he has since
participated in labor protests and traveled to Washington, D.C., to
testify in front of the secretary of labor about the situation of
refugees. He also talked about his meeting with representatives from Sen.
Bob Casey’s office and the director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement
at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Based on his experience of two extremes of the political
spectrum—democracy in the United States and dictatorship in Burma—Anu Oo
has defined democracy: “Democracy is like a glass. You can see through
it—unlike in a dictatorship—but it is also easy to break.”

Another refugee, who asked that his name not be used because he still has
family in Burma, tried to break through the opacity of the Burmese
dictatorship by clandestinely copying and distributing unsanctioned
newspapers and publications. He came to Pittsburgh in 2007 as a political
refugee after spending 20 months in a Malaysian prison. He was forced to
flee Burma in 2002 after military intelligence officers found a political
newspaper in his car.

He said there are nine different ethnic groups from Burma in Pittsburgh
and that the community is remarkably close-knit, setting aside the
tensions that pitted ethnic groups against one another back in Burma.

Unlike many of the refugees, he is college-educated, fluent in English,
and from a city. He also owns his own home in Troy Hill, which he bought
with the help of a personal loan from his employer, David Thomas, the
owner of Breadworks, a bakery on the Northside.

When Catholic Charities approached this refugee about working as a
translator, he told them he was happy to help in any way, but wanted to
make it volunteer. He is a presence at the community nights, acting as a
translator, and collects donations for new families. “I want to help my
people,” he said.  “I don’t want to think, who is the Karen, who is the
Burmese. No, we are all refugees. I am a refugee. They are refugees too.”

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

July 30, OpenDemocracy
Myanmar’s 2010 elections: a human rights perspective – Benjamin Zawacki

Later this year Myanmar will hold its first national elections since 1990,
when the National League for Democracy, led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, won a
resounding victory but was denied the opportunity to take office. In the
two decades since that time, those elections have dogged the government of
Myanmar both domestically and internationally. This year’s elections thus
present an opportunity for the government to place 1990 firmly behind
them, pursuant to its self-styled ‘Roadmap to Democracy’.

The roadmap has not lived up to its name, thus far essentially leading the
country in circles. Recent signposts include the announcements in February
2008 that elections would be held sometime in 2010, and that a new draft
constitution had been completed. Three months later, in the wake of
devastating Cyclone Nargis, that Constitution was supposedly approved by
over 90% of the electorate, in a referendum characterized by voting forced
or otherwise manipulated by the authorities. Then, in what can be seen as
an elections-related move, last year Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was arrested for
violating the conditions of her house arrest, after an uninvited visitor
trespassed on her property. Already detained for nearly fourteen of the
past twenty years, she was subsequently sentenced to eighteen additional
months—or just long enough to keep her out of the way on and before
election day. This year has seen the promulgation of Electoral Laws—which
declare the 1990 polls officially void—and the NLD’s decision to boycott
the elections.
Ethnic minority political opponents

And these are just the most widely reported signposts, to say nothing of a
situation that is less well-known but certainly no less critical to human
rights in Myanmar and to the elections later this year. That is, the
situation for Myanmar’s ethnic minorities—and the first of Amnesty
International’s three main elections-related concerns.

The coming elections highlight a major challenge that has confronted—and
confounded—every Myanmar government since independence more than 60 years
ago: ensuring the assent, or at least the compliance, of the country’s
ethnic minorities with its political program. For most of the last six
decades, Myanmar’s rulers have used a combination of force and negotiation
to this end. In the context of the elections, the government has
alternately encouraged and warned ethnic minority political organizations
to take part, with most remaining undecided or noncommittal. Myanmar’s
government is struggling to ensure that those represented by armed groups
still fighting with the army are either defeated or “brought back into the
legal fold” before the elections. The army and allied militias have waged
offensives against several armed opposition groups—as well as clearly
unlawful attacks on civilians—from the Karen, Shan, and Kokang ethnic
minorities. As a result, over 45,000 persons from these ethnic minorities
were displaced during 2009 and the Kokang’s armed group was defeated.

The offensive against the Kokang is especially significant in the context
of the Myanmar government’s newest strategy of converting the existing
armed ethnic groups that have agreed ceasefires into Border Guard Forces
(BGF) under army command. Offered pay, perks, and official legal status,
roughly half of the groups have agreed, while the others—including the
swiftly defeated Kokang—have refused. The elections will further clarify
how the aspirations of Myanmar’s ethnic minorities will be represented: by
armed insurrection, through non-violent political action, or both.

Indeed, as a February report from Amnesty International reveals—and in
contrast to a prevailing international misconception—a significant part of
Myanmar’s peaceful political opposition is made up of ethnic minorities.
Over the past several years at least, Amnesty’s research shows that ethnic
minority political opponents and activists have been systematically
repressed by the Myanmar authorities. Among the human rights violations
perpetrated against these individuals and groups as means of repressing
political activity have been arbitrary arrests, unfair trials resulting in
imprisonment, torture, and extrajudicial executions. As elections
approach, this reality is not only of concern to Amnesty, but must be both
understood and taken into account by the international community.

Observers outside Myanmar often divide opposition to the government
between, on the one side, a political struggle led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi
and the NLD, and on the other side, insurgency, carried out by a variety
of ethnic minority armed groups. This perception over-simplifies the
situation, understates the work done by peaceful ethnic minority political
opponents, and ignores the high price they pay for challenging the
government. In terms of party and electoral politics, a substantial
portion of the NLD’s membership and leadership consists of ethnic
minorities, while ethnically-based political parties have proven resilient
as well. It is often forgotten that the second-most successful party in
the 1990 elections was the Shan NLD, an ethnic minority party with similar
aims to those of the NLD. Likewise in terms of political activism: the
first monks to march in the 2007 ‘Saffron Revolution’ were ethnic minority
Rakhine, while the campaigns against the draft constitution and referendum
in 2008 were as vigorous in the ethnic minority states as in Myanmar’s
central regions and urban centres.

Amnesty’s February report establishes that Myanmar’s political opposition
is widespread geographically and ethnically diverse. It reaches two other
conclusions: first, the number of political prisoners in Myanmar is likely
to be substantially higher than the 2,200 figure currently in use—and
about 10% of which is made up of ethnic minorities. This is because, while
we have names for each of those 2,200 prisoners, Amnesty’s report reveals
that there are certainly many more—anonymous—whose names we don’t know.
Second, as elections approach, it is not enough that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi
and all other political prisoners be released, that the NLD’s members and
supporters be free to exercise their right to boycott, and that a human
rights-friendly resolution be found to the Border Guard Force issue:
authorities must also cease their repression of Myanmar’s ethnic minority
political opponents. While these violations of human rights are
unacceptable in any context, anywhere, in the run-up to national elections
in Myanmar, attacks against the freedoms of expression, peaceful assembly,
and association should be of immediate concern to the international
community.
Electoral Laws and directives

As a matter of blanket policy Amnesty International does not take a
position on elections: neither on whether they should or should not be
held, nor on whether they are free and fair or otherwise. Rather, Amnesty
assesses what governments do and not how they are formed—in this case, the
past and ongoing actions of the government of Myanmar in preparation for
elections later this year. One such action was the government’s
promulgation five months ago of five Electoral Laws and four Bylaws.
Provisions of these laws are in clear violation of human rights principles
and standards, and when viewed as a group, clearly attack the three
freedoms of expression, peaceful assembly, and association. These rights
are enshrined in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and their
protection is indispensible to elections.

This comes as no surprise, for the 2008 Constitution, upon which the laws
are based but which will not come into force until after the elections,
itself allows for clear violations of human rights. Indeed one of the
Electoral Laws provides that parties must declare that they will
“safeguard[ing] the Constitution of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar”.
Among the more serious human rights aspects and implications of the
Constitution include the President being effectively above the law;
impunity for past crimes by government officials; and a total suspension
of “fundamental rights” during indefinite and undefined states of
emergency.

The Electoral Laws continue this trend, being discriminatory on the basis
of political opinion, and violating other human rights. At the most basic
level, whole segments of Burmese society are arbitrarily excluded. Those
the laws disenfranchise include “persons serving prison term under
sentence passed by any court”, “a person adjudged to be of unsound mind”,
“a person who has not yet been discharged as an insolvent”, and “a person
prohibited by Election Law”.

These categories are so broad in their potential definitions as to make
exclusion from the voting lists highly subjective. Presumably it is the
newly established Election Commission that is charged with determining who
is “of unsound mind” and who is “prohibited by Election Law”. As for
undischarged insolvents, economic or financial status should be no bar to
full political participation. And perhaps of most obvious and central
concern to Amnesty International is the provision disenfranchising
“persons serving prison term under sentence passed by any court”. This
includes the more than 2,200 political prisoners in Myanmar, many of whose
convictions arose not from any recognizably criminal act, but rather are
arbitrary and based on their legitimate exercise of rights. Though again
subject to the interpretation of the Election Commission, this provision
likely applies to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi as well.

Members of religious orders—including Myanmar’s estimated 400,000 Buddhist
monks—are also explicitly barred from voting. While such has been the case
since Myanmar’s independence, meaning that these new Electoral Laws do not
per se disenfranchise them, this prohibition perpetuates discrimination
based on their religion or status.

All of these provisions apply to standing for election as well, as do
several additional ambiguously worded categories of those who cannot run.
All are similarly discriminatory, and in addition violate the freedoms of
expression, peaceful assembly, and/or association.

For more, visit:
http://www.opendemocracy.net/benjamin-zawacki/myanmar%E2%80%99s-2010-elections-human-rights-perspective

____________________________________

July 30, Huffington Post (US)
An unchanging Burma vs. An immovable force for good – Richard Walden

Having been repeatedly denied a working visa to provide direct aid to
Burma (aka Myanmar) as an international relief group (whose name,
Operation USA, leaves the tragi-comical government of Burma unenthusiastic
about my prowling about their beautiful country looking for health care
projects in need of assistance), I travel instead to Mae Sot on the
Thailand-Burma border. There, one of the great grassroots success stories,
Dr. Cynthia Maung's Mae Tao Clinic, has for 21 years managed to care for
over 250,000 semi-permanent refugees while also providing quiet
cross-border assistance to those who need it.

Dr. Cynthia, as she is commonly known, is a major humanitarian figure --
there's usually at least one such person in every country, often a
physician, whom those of us who walk the earth consumed with aid and
development rely on for guidance,cultural awareness and an honest partner
-- who has amassed an under-funded empire of basic medical services,
emergency care, violence prevention and treatment and a panoply of social
services. She attracts hundreds of international volunteers, often college
age, who cut their teeth working 24/7 in one of her projects and are
changed eternally for having done so. After years of operating in a
quasi-legal vacuum, the Clinic is finally "registered" with the Thai
authorities. This status should enable it to receive duty free material
aid from groups like Operation USA.

As the years of Burmese Government oppression turn into decades, as Nobel
Peace Laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi stays under house arrest, and typhoon
disasters and mismanagement of resources devastate an otherwise rich
country, it's important to remember the Burmese and make a small place for
them in our ocean of compassion. Dr. Cynthia's Mae Tao Clinic is a good
place to start.

____________________________________
INTERVIEWS

July 30, Irrawaddy
Getting the facts straight about 'The Dear Leader'

A Burmese biography of North Korea's enigmatic leader, Kim Jong Il, was
published recently amid international concern over growing ties between
Naypyidaw and Pyongyang. However, the book, “Kim Jong Il: North Korea’s
Dear Leader,” was seized by the officials at North Korean embassy in
Rangoon soon after its release. Irrawaddy reporter Wai Moe spoke with the
author, Hein Latt, 62, about what happened.

Question: Is it true that your book about Kim Jong Il has been seized? How
did it happen?

Answer: Yes, it is true. Apart from my mother tongue, Burmese, the only
foreign language I know is English. I therefore drew some of my
information from two books about [Kim Jong Il] published in the US. In
fact, I referred to other books, too. But the North Korean Embassy claimed
that some facts in the two books I used as sources were not correct.

Q: Which books did you use?

A: These two books were last published in 2009. I don't know if the
findings in them are correct, but I thought they were atypical, so I
translated them. I also used books published by the North Korean Embassy.
I used facts from every book I read. However, the North Koreans claimed
that some facts in the American books were wrong, which I really didn't
know. All I did was copy the facts and that was the problem.

Q: Did you publish the book with official permission?

A: Yes, it was published under the government's permission.

Q: How did the North Korean Embassy find out about the book before they
objected to you directly?

A: They found out about the book two months after it was published. I
believe Burmese employees at the North Korean Embassy informed the embassy
officials. I heard they were told to translate some of the contents of my
book into English. For example, they claimed that the table of the North
Korean People's Army structure was wrong. The table, which I took from the
American books, shows how many generals are in position, but the books
from the North Korean Embassy don't disclose such top secret information.
I, as a writer, couldn't tell what information was correct, so I just
referred to what the books said. Readers like books with a lot of facts.
The rest of the content was positive about Kim Jong Il. I intentionally
avoided bad things about him. When they asked me which books I used as
references, I showed them books published in New York. Then they said such
misinformation should not be provided to readers and asked me to hand over
all undistributed books. I just did as they said to avoid any problems.
Let it be. I didn't know what would happen if I resisted. In fact, I lost
financially.

Q: Who objected to your book—Burma's censorship board, the Press Scrutiny
and Registration Division (PSRD), or the North Korean Embassy? Did they
summon you or contact you via phone or letter? Did you try to collect
facts from the North Korean Embassy before you published the book?

A: I was summoned to the embassy. I did take some books I needed from
them. When I wrote, I used both left- and right-wing ideology, which is
our way of writing. I couldn't just rely on their books, which were so
heavy with facts, including lists of births and deaths. I have written
about 25 biographies of world leaders, including Iran's Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad and the late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping. I don't speak
Chinese or Persian, so I had to rely on books published in English. This
is my right. Chinese are very clear on this matter. They don’t' support or
oppose you.

Q: We heard that they took the books off the shelves of the bookstores and
burned them in front of you. Is that true?

A: I have given them all the copies I have left. I don't think they will
seize the books from the stores because they have to pay for them, which
they are reluctant to do. Some stores own the books, so they won't let you
seize their property. I gave them about 330 books, which is all that I had
left. It isn't true that they burned the books. That was just a rumor.

Q: Did the PSRD say that your book could have an impact on the
relationship between the two countries?

A: No. Even though I was officially granted permission to publish it, I
said nothing about it. Neither the Ministry of Information nor the PSRD
said anything. To tell you the truth, I was afraid of the North Koreans.
They would do whatever they wanted to do. If it were another country, it
wouldn't be a big deal.

Q: We have learned that you criticized Deng Xiaoping when you wrote about
him. What about this time? Did you also include criticism about the North
Korean leader?

A: When I wrote about Deng Xiaoping, I said he was good when he was young.
He was in trouble during the Cultural Revolution—suppressed by the Gang of
Four, something like that. But he changed later. I wrote everything, good
and bad, about him. But in this book about the North Korean leader, I did
not use any critical tone about him. However, they don't allow or won't
endorse any book unless the North Korean government publishes it
officially. It doesn’t matter how much you praise their leader in your
book, they still don't like it if it was not what they publish.

Q: Kim Jong Il's penchant for fine dining was revealed in your book, right?

A: Yes. He likes to eat sushi and other delicious dishes. But at public
receptions, he only eats rice soup. That's all I said. The books I refer
to say he has hired Italian chefs and Japanese and English cooks as he
enjoys exotic food, even though he only eats rice soup in public. I was
actually kind to him in my translation. There are a lot bad things I could
have written about him.

Q: Did readers like your book?

A: It didn't really appeal to readers. Look how many copies I had left. If
readers were really interested, there wouldn't have been any books left to
hand over. My biography of President Obama, on the other hand, sold out
very quickly and was reprinted five times. I also wrote about Iranian
President Ahmadinejad because no other author in Burma had written about
him. It was very difficult work for me, but it didn't sell well, either.
Economically, it was risky to publish such a book.

Q: What do you think about this incident?

A: My personal belief in writing biographies is that Burmese people can
learn from the lifelong experiences of world leaders and take what they
think is good and useful from them. Likewise, they can leave bad things
behind. The younger generation should learn from those who love their
country and people. I would also like to write about Iranian religious
leader Ayatollah Khomeini, who I believe committed bad things but at the
same time is worth learning from. In that way, our younger generation will
be knowledgeable and have an international outlook and good understanding
of history. I don't write biographies for money. I just want others to
have more knowledge. Such books are really difficult to sell. It's
difficult to sell even 1,000 copies.