BurmaNet News, August 12, 2010

[Editor]

August 12, 2010 Issue #4018


INSIDE BURMA
Mizzima: Special Branch officers harass party members
Kantarawaddy: USDP forces loans on residents as part of poll campaign
Irrawaddy: 'Sandwich reporting' keeps the censors guessing

ON THE BORDER
Telegraph (UK): Helping Burmese children on the edge
DVB: Talking about my generation

BUSINESS / TRADE
Xinhua: New private bank opened for services in Myanmar new capital

REGIONAL
Irrawaddy: Mekong dams could destabilize region

INTERNATIONAL
AP: New refugee students in NY get ready for US school

OPINION / OTHER
Diplomat (Japan): India’s shameful Burma ploy – Sanjay Kumar
Reuters AlterNet: Unloved and unwelcome: Myanmar migrants in Thailand
DVB: Na Kham Mwe: “we will pay with our lives” – Naw Noreen


____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

August 12, Mizzima News
Special Branch officers harass party members

Rangoon – Burmese junta intelligence staff have called at the homes of
Democracy Party members uninvited and intimidated them, party chairman Thu
Wei outlined in a written complaint to the Union Election Commission in
Naypyidaw on Monday.

Democracy Party chairman Thu Wei (centre, in overcoat), general secretary
Than Than Nu (in red sarong), Cho Cho Kyaw Nyein (in purple blouse) were
seen along with other party members at the office opening and
party-signboard raising ceremony held at the party’s head office in 52nd
Street, Botataung Townshipm Rangoon last Friday morning. Photo: Mizzima

Democracy Party chairman Thu Wei (centre, in overcoat), general secretary
Than Than Nu (in red sarong), Cho Cho Kyaw Nyein (in purple blouse) were
seen along with other party members at the office opening and
party-signboard raising ceremony held at the party’s head office in 52nd
Street, Botataung Townshipm Rangoon last Friday morning. Photo: Mizzima
“Police Special Branch officers visited the residences of our party
members and asked them to provide two passport photos along with bio data
and personal profiles,” Thu Wei said. “This is intimidation of our members
and cannot be tolerated.”

As per electoral laws, the party sent its list of 1,000 members, the
minimum required for a national party, to the junta’s electoral watchdog,
which was later handed to this security agency. The officers then made the
visits during which members were questioned, he said.

In a country that shows little tolerance to opposition movements, people
see the appearance of such officers at the door of one’s with distrust and
fear, believing intelligence offers can only bring trouble.

Though submitting two passport photos and a detailed personal profile was
not set out in electoral laws or election commission pronouncements, the
officers nevertheless demanded party members submit them, said Thu Wei,
who demanded the commission to stop security forces making such calls.

“We visited many parties to cover the election news, interviewing many
party members and found them very reluctant to join political parties. The
questioning by security agencies in this manner makes them more hesitant
to participate in politics”, a domestic reporter told Mizzima.

Meanwhile, the junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP)
was continuing to conduct election campaigning among people in Rangoon and
recruiting party members without obstruction. They even waived the
prescribed party membership fee of 1,000 Kyat to these newly recruited
party members, party organisers said.

Critics have accused the USDP of converting public money contributed
through the state apparatus to the former Union Solidarity and Development
Association (USDA) into the party war chest fund of USDP.
____________________________________

August 12, Kantarawaddy Times
USDP forces loans on residents as part of poll campaign – Ko Nee

Loans are being forced on people in parts of southern Shan State by the
Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) in an attempt to garner
their support for regime-backed candidates in the forthcoming general
elections in Burma, local residents alleged.

The USDP’s distribution of loans, when people have not asked for it has
come in for criticism in Phe Khon village, southern Shan state. A local
resident said that many villagers did not want to take the loans, because
they have had bitter experiences regarding the loan process last year.
They were forced to repay double the original amount within six months.

"Even though we do not want to take loans, they forced it on us. They USDP
has been persuading people to take loans on high rates of interest known
as "Candidates Cash," said a resident from Phe Khon.

The USDP made the offers to selected residents in the beginning of June
and arranged for loans of 13,500 Kyat for a family. Similarly, a report in
Kachin News Group said that USDP members have offered 5,000 Kyat to
residents in Puta O Township in Kachin State in northern Burma.

The loan disbursement is part of the USDP's poll campaign. The forced
loans and its process  will affect the people, said a Loikaw resident who
is aware of the situation in Karenni state.

The USDP is a regime-backed party formed on April 29 by the Prime
Minister, Gen Thein Sein, and 26 other ministers and senior junta
officials. The party was recognized by the Election Commission on June 8.

____________________________________

August 12, Irrawaddy
'Sandwich reporting' keeps the censors guessing – Saw Yan Naing

A new term, "Sandwich Reporting," has crept into the vocabulary of Burmese
journalists looking for ways to bypass the government censors.

“Just like a sandwich, which puts a filling between two slices of bread,
we insert into our stories messages that are missed by the censors," said
an editor working for a weekly journal in Rangoon. "We call it 'sandwich
reporting style,'" she said.

Burma's more than 450 non-government newspapers, journals and magazines
must all submit to the regime's Press Scrutiny and Registration Division
(PSRD) the reports and articles they intend to publish.

Scarcely a month goes by without one publication or another being
suspended for slipping an offending article or picture past the PSRD
censors. Sometimes, the author lands in jail—like the poet Saw Wai who was
sentenced in 2008 to two years imprisonment after writing a Valentine's
Day poem containing the hidden message "[Snr-Gen] Than Shwe is foolish
with power."

The offending message was formed by the first words of the poem's seven
lines.

The magazine Love Journal carried the poem and rapidly sold out before the
censors discovered they had been hoodwinked. Saw Wai, 50, was freed in May
after serving 28 months in prison—four months longer than his original
sentence.

The censors were reportedly issued with magnifying glasses and mirrors
after the Love Journal incident, with the instruction to be more careful
in future to detect coded messages.

In one spectacular coup in July 2007, an activist group of artists
inserted in the English-language newspaper The Myanmar Times an
advertisement containing coded messages calling Than Shwe a killer and
hailing "freedom."

The half-page ad said it was inserted by “The Board of Islandic Travel
Agencies Ewhsnahtrellik and the Danish Industry BesoegDanmark”—the censors
failed to notice that the Danish-sounding word “Ewhsnahtrellik” spelt
“killer Than Shwe” when read backwards.
A poem in the ad contained the coded word "freedom."

The authorities had a hard time in 2007 and 2008 preventing news of the
monk-led demonstrations and Cyclone Nargis being spread outside Burma by
Internet-savvy journalists, bloggers and photographers. Internet access
was cut, but the so-called citizen journalists still found methods to get
their material to the outside world.

This year, journalists are encountering tighter censorship as the
authorities gear up for the general election.

In late July, the Rangoon journal The Voice was ordered by the PSRD to
temporarily halt publication after it carried an article analyzing the
country's new constitution.

Also in July, the monthly magazine Style Thit had to slash its edition by
100 pages on the orders of the PSRD.

The offending pages covered Burma’s Martyrs Day and the assassination of
the country's independence hero Aung San, according to journalists in
Rangoon.

At least 10 journalists in Burma were arrested in 2008 and one received a
prison sentence of 19 years. About 30 poets, writers, journalists and
bloggers are among more than 2,000 political prisoners in Burma, according
to the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners
(Burma).

In a report by Reporters Without Borders in May marking this year's World
Press Freedom Day, Burma was one of 40 countries on a list of “Predators
of Press Freedom,” along with countries like Cuba, Libya, North Korea and
Turkmenistan.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

August 12, Telegraph (UK)
Helping Burmese children on the edge – Nick Ryan

Rachel Bentley flicks through some photographs on her laptop, stopping at
one of a young woman with careworn features.

"We met her on the second day. Her husband had been badly beaten by the
military as they were forced back across the border. She'd lost her
week-old baby."

She then brings up another shot, this time of a sprawling, makeshift camp
spreading over a lumpy landscape of mud and stunted trees.

"That's an unofficial refugee camp in Cox's Bazar district, in southern
Bangladesh. Home to the Rohingya, Burmese Muslims who can neither marry,
nor lead safe lives, inside Burma. They flee to Bangladesh, where they
face an equally uncertain future."

Bentley, 42, director of a ground-breaking international charity called
Children on the Edge, looks over the sea of shacks and children's faces,
then sighs.

"Since October 2009, the camp has grown by 6,000 people, with 2,000 of
these arriving in January 2010 alone. It's grown by a quarter in just
those few months, to around 30,000 people."

"Now the government are threatening to expel them all again and
malnutrition and starvation are stalking the population," she adds.
"They're trying to eke out a living as best they can and give the children
what little schooling they can afford. But for how long? They don't belong

 neither in Burma or in Bangladesh. It's a tragedy that few in the world
know."

A life-changing trip

It was 1990, just a few months after the Berlin Wall had tumbled and
Eastern Europe's most feared dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu of Romania, had
been executed – much to the delight of his people.

For one young The Body Shop volunteer, it was also the start of a journey
that would change her life and that of thousands of the world's most
vulnerable children today.

"Everything was changing. For the first time we were seeing these awful
images of orphaned children, abandoned, hungry and helpless, held in
terrible conditions inside state institutions."

Rachel Bentley was a 22-year-old law graduate when she joined The Body
Shop founder Anita Roddick and a small group of volunteers on a
life-changing aid trip to Romania.

"The Body Shop had never done anything like this before," she says. "It
was Anita's vision to put together a team, gathering whatever we could, to
go and help refurbish the orphanages."

She adds: "We slept on the floor of a clinic in rural Romania; myself, a
friend, and Anita and her two daughters. Anita was very motherly," Bentley
smiles. "She would go down to the market every morning and just cook up
this wonderful Italian food for us and the kids."

Roddick died of a brain haemorrhage in 2007, but Rachel Bentley has taken
up her mantle. Children on the Edge, the children's rights charity which
Bentley shaped and now heads, was born out of that first, desperate
Romanian trip.

Still with strong The Body Shop links (both have their headquarters on
England's Sussex coastline), it has gone on to help marginalised and
vulnerable children across Eastern Europe as well as Asia: helping ravaged
Indonesian communities cope after the Boxing Day Tsunami, building schools
for the blind in Bosnia, and developing "child friendly spaces" (special
community centres) in war-torn East Timor.

Without Children on the Edge's help, many of these youngsters or their
families would never gain access to an education, a safe place to play or
a chance to recuperate from trauma. In fact little stops the organisation
which has earned a nickname in the aid fraternity as the "Médicins Sans
Frontières of the education world".

"Ultimately it comes down to our name: Children on the Edge," says
Bentley, speaking softly from her tidy office nestled above a bright-pink
bakery in the picturesque city of Chichester. "We can go in, under the
radar in many cases and help extremely marginalised children."

There are now dozens of former Romanian orphans, successful young men and
women, who have her to thank for their education and livelihoods.

"For me, that's the reward," Bentley replies modestly.

Born near Birmingham, England, Bentley moved with her family to the island
of Fiji when she was just two years old. She then spent the next 10 years
of her life on the island whilst her father worked as an engineer for an
international development agency. "I grew up running around barefoot," she
smiles. "I was really at ease with different cultures from a very young
age."

At nine she went to an international school, then the family returned to
Britain two years later when she was 11. It must have been something of a
shock to the girl running barefoot on beaches and mingling in the Pacific
sun with all races of the Earth.

"It was quite a shock coming back!" Bentley agrees with an infectious
giggle. "We came back in the middle of winter. I was horrified to suddenly
have to put on this jumper and blazer. I remember being teased about my
'Australian' accent. It was all a bit alien. I now also know all the flora
and fauna of these exotic plants where I grew up, but I'm not so great on
the native British species!"

But instead of a quiet life in the beautiful Sussex countryside, it was to
Burma, one of the world's most repressive military regimes, that Bentley
became drawn.

Vulnerable children

Burma is ruled by one of the most brutal military dictatorships in the
world, headed by General Than Shwe. The military junta, called the State
Peace & Development Council (SPDC), refuse to hand power to the
democratically elected National League for Democracy (NLD) led by Nobel
Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi. Tens of thousands have been killed,
imprisoned, tortured or forced into slavery by the brutal regime. Hundreds
of thousands have fled to neighbouring Thailand, India, and Bangladesh as
well as nearby Malaysia and the Gulf and Arabian states.

Bentley says that she went to the border area between Burma and Thailand
[where over 100,000 Burmese have settled] in 2006, to simply meet as many
groups as she could.

"You get introduced to one, then another. Often they're women's groups,
but not always," she says. "It's eastern and western Burma where all the
troubles are going on," she goes on to explain. "So it's people groups
from western Burma living in exile who set up their own organisations
helping their own people within the neighbouring countries like India and
Thailand, but also organising cross-border support for their people back
in Burma."

"Everywhere I travel I meet vulnerable children," continues the Sussex
woman, with a sad smile. "Those who've lost out to war, famine, natural
disaster 
 In Burma, there are thousands upon thousands of them in state
institutions. We wanted to operate inside the country, to help those
children, but our hands were tied by the dictatorship there. There would
be no way we could operate effectively there with the military
government."

Her kind-looking eyes flash with anger. "Did you know that the Burmese
military has destroyed twice as many villages as in Darfur? Over 100
different minorities are threatened inside Burma – they face forced
labour, rape, torture and some can't even legally marry."

"Once they [the refugees] get to places like Bangladesh or other nearby
countries, they're regarded as illegal immigrants, unable to work, treated
as slave labour, threatened with detention or, like the women we met,
often violently expelled."

"And of course it's the children who suffer the most. There's really no
life... no life at all," Bentley repeats, with a shake of her head.

Then the flicker of a smile returns as she remembers the children of the
unofficial refugee camp in Bangladesh rushing out to meet her last year.

"They are Rohingya," she explains, pointing to the images on her laptop
screen. "Burmese Muslims. One of the world's last great stateless
nations."

Bentley is one of few western women to visit the Rohingya. Having spent
the past three years travelling to Burma's neighbours – supporting basic
"apartment schools" run by Chin [Burmese Christian refugees] in Malaysia
and refugee schools for the Karen [also a Christian Burmese minority] in
Thailand, even risking life and limb to go inside Burma where Children on
the Edge brings education materials and provides teachers' stipends to
minority groups running several children's nurseries – she was asked by
the Rohingya to come and see their lives alongside the heavily-militarised
Bangladesh-Burma border.

The conditions in the camps are some of the worst she has ever seen.

"It's become very bad. Squalid. When I spoke to the children and the
mothers, I could see the fear in their eyes – they used to live alongside
the Bangladeshis in their villages. Now they're being forced to move to
these camps and live in terror of being sent back [to Burma]."

Most people have never heard of the Rohingya, she says. Last year
boatloads of these refugees were intercepted at sea by the Thai army.
After days in outdoor detention they were towed back out, then abandoned
with no food or water and no motors to power their boats. Over 500 men,
women and children died.

"It was shocking 
 disgraceful," says Bentley.

Alongside Children on the Edge, several international aid organisations
and human rights groups are warning of starvation and beatings facing the
Rohingya refugees living in Bangladesh.

Conditions in the camp are indeed tough. According to The New York Times,
the dirt paths, flimsy shacks and open sewers have grown by 6,000 people
to nearly 30,000, with 2,000 arrivals in January alone.

Denied the ability to work or receive aid in Bangladesh, the population
has grown as Rohingya seek refuge from a wave of violence that has forced
them out of their long-established homes in other Bangladeshi towns and
villages.

Researchers from the Arakan Project, a human-rights group documenting the
plight of the Rohingya, claimed children from the surrounding makeshift
camp were begging for food from the refugees in the one "official"
(government-sanctioned) settlement.

MSF reported that: "People are crowding into a crammed and unsanitary
patch of ground with no infrastructure to support them. Prevented from
working to support themselves, neither are they permitted food aid. As the
numbers swell and resources become increasingly scarce, we are extremely
concerned about the deepening crisis."

And in an emergency report released in March, "Stateless and Starving:
Persecuted Rohingya Flee Burma and Starve in Bangladesh", a doctors'
organisation called Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) also argued that
there were critical levels of malnutrition and a surging refugee
population in Kutupalong, one of the "unofficial" camps, without access to
food aid.

"In recent months Bangladeshi authorities have waged an unprecedented
campaign of arbitrary arrest, illegal expulsion, and forced internment
against Burmese refugees," said the report. Deaths from starvation and
disease were likely if the "humanitarian crisis" is not addressed.

PHR researchers observed children with severe protein malnutrition and
those with swollen limbs and often distended abdomens. One out of five
children with acute malnutrition, if not treated, would die, concluded the
medical teams.

A European Union delegation fact-finding in Bangladesh earlier this year
issued a resolution in the European Parliament on February 11 calling on
the government in Dhaka to recognise the unregistered Rohingya as refugees
and to extend humanitarian support.

Visit www.childrenontheedge.org for more information

Nick Ryan is an author, journalist and producer. www.nickryan.net

____________________________________

August 12, Democratic Voice of Burma
Talking about my generation – Gayatri Lakshmibai

It was at the age of 20 that John first learned the rules to
sing-along-karaoke contests. “Until then I’d never had the opportunity to
attend parties or have fun. This was a new feeling — [a feeling of]
freedom. Freedom to have fun without anyone looking over my shoulder,” the
24- year-old Naga Burmese says. John recounts how he had been pleasantly
surprised by the idea of a new world and a new beginning, once he had
crossed the Burmese border to enter the north eastern Indian state of
Nagaland, where he attended school.

John is part of a lucky cohort of Burmese youth. Not many youngsters get
an opportunity to seek freedom and education within or even outside their
country. Schools, colleges and universities in Burma are under the
military junta’s control and dire funding regime, allowing few attractive
options to be pursued. Most youngsters who do make it across borders
languish in refugee camps, some get enrolled into educational programmes
conducted by various NGOs, while most add to the growing number of
unregistered migrant labourers, toiling for survival in neighbouring
countries.

“I don’t have a great academic track record to speak of. But at the point
when I was deciding to get employed, I felt it was better to do something
than nothing. It was important to be productive,” says John, who is today
part of the Human Rights Documentation Unit (HRDU); “I help document human
rights abuses of the Burmese military. It feels as though I am doing
something constructive,” he adds.

What does it mean to be a young Burmese on International Youth Day? John
answers after a long pause, “There are responsibilities,” he drifts away.
Most conversations with young Burmese refugees lead in this direction —
reflections on an overarching duty to serve a community, a cause or the
nation, with no room for personal ambitions at all.

Black Town, 27, of the Community for Internally Displaced Karen People
(CIDKP) in Mae Sot, Thailand echoes these thoughts, “When I was a
teenager, I had no idea what the future had in store for me. Most of my
friends were in the same boat. I let things take their own course and I am
happy with what I am doing today.” But many of Black Town’s compatriots
aren’t as fortunate. With little or no choice in deciding their future,
youngsters are waging a losing battle against an array of issues.

In 2000 the United Nations (UN) declared August 12 as International Youth
Day, and as of today dedicated this as the ‘Year of Youth’. A decade after
the demarcation of the day, it’s motto still remains “drawing attention to
cultural and legal issues surrounding the endangered demographic.”

The youth of Burma can indeed be seen as a troubled demographic.
Education, health and employment remain major hurdles in their
development. Add to this the innumerable cases of human rights violations
on young adults by the Burmese military regime and the result is an
atmosphere not very conducive to facilitating a healthy adulthood.

There has been no census recorded since 1983, making it difficult to
estimate the percentage of youth comprising the entire population.
According to some sources, nearly 35 percent of the population falls under
the 15-24 age bracket. Young adults between 20-24 make up the largest
demographic group (classified by age) in Burma.

There aren’t many policies implemented by the military to provide valuable
education to the Burmese youth. Which can be seen as a calculated failure,
for the more uneducated and less politically inclined youngsters are, the
higher the possibility of the military junta continuing its oppressive
regime — this reflects in the military’s strategies; spending a meagre
1.25% of the government’s expenditure on education. Education and
political awareness are key to democratisation, and democracy, elections
or not, which could lead to the worrying problem of youth apathy towards
poilitics with the elections fast approaching.

“I hope the situation changes. I hope my children don’t have to struggle
to be educated. Education, as we all know, is the backbone of a healthy
society, and today as youngsters we must dedicate ourselves to the cause.”
Black Town said.

Black Town and John’s is the second generation of young Burmese selflessly
dedicating their lives to demanding freedom, democracy and everything that
comes along with these values. It’s hard to predict how many more
generations will pass before Burma’s youngsters can lead a life without
having to demand their basic human rights.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

August 12, Xinhua
New private bank opened for services in Myanmar new capital

Yangon – A new private bank, the Asia Green Development Bank, has opened
in Myanmar's new capital of Nay Pyi Taw for business operation, according
to Thursday's local Biweekly Eleven News.

The Asia Green Development Bank in Zabuthiri township in the capital
region, run by a giant businessmen U Tay Za (Htoo trading company group),
represents the first of the four new private banks planned to be added in
the new capital.

The other three banks to be established as a follow-up are Ayeyawaddy,
Leader Myanmar and United Amera, respectively owned by U Zaw Zaw (Max
Myanmar Co.Ltd), U Chit Khine (Ayedin Co. Ltd) and U Nay Aung (IGE).

Some five banks such as Myanmar Economic Bank, Myanmar Industrial
Development Bank, Myawaddy Bank, Sibintharya Bank and Kanbawza Bank are
currently running business in the capital with three others being under
construction, the report said.

There are 15 private banks in operation in Myanmar, 13 of which are
located in the former capital city of Yangon.

Private banks were once nationalized in Myanmar in 1963 during the
previous government but after the country started to adopt the
market-oriented economic system in late 1988, private banks were allowed
to operate again since 1992.

There are also four state banks in addition to the 15 private ones in
Myanmar which are all governed by the government's Central Bank.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

August 12, Irrawaddy
Mekong dams could destabilize region – Simon Roughneen

Bangkok––Uncoordinated decision-making and unilateral initiatives not only
threaten the Mekong River area environment and livelihoods, but could
affect security in Southeast Asia.

With four out eight Chinese dams already built on the Lancang, the name
for the Upper Mekong River inside China, and nine more either in place or
awaiting construction on the river's middle and lower reaches in Cambodia
and Laos, the jury is still out on how these dams will impact on the
region. Environmental damage could also damage the economies in the
region, in turn causing political strife within the affected countries and
damaging the relations between countries.

According to Dr. Richard Cronin, the head of the Southeast Asia Program at
the Stimson Center in Washington, DC, “fragmented decision-making and lack
of co-ordination between stakeholders means that all sides are going ahead
with their own projects without getting knowing how these work together or
impact on the river and region as a whole.” Cronin was speaking at a
seminar organized by the American Studies Programme at Bangkok's
Chulalongkorn University.

According to Dr. Cronin, “the river is more fragile than we think, and it
will take only a few dams for the river to be changed in ways we cannot
fully understand.”

For example, environmental groups say that the Mekong catfish, the
third-largest freshwater fish in the world, will be unable to spawn, as it
will not be able to get upstream due to the dams.

Other critical voices such as Carl Middleton of International Rivers
questioned the labeling of the dams as development projects, saying that
they would undermine livelihoods for 60 million people who are dependent
on the river.

Additional dams are likely to reduce fish stocks on the river, which is
one the most lush waterways in the world. The prevention of silt from the
Chinese or upper reaches from reaching the floodplains in southeast Asia
could have unforeseen effects on farming and on the sustenance of the
river delta.

China controls the upper reaches of the river, where most of the
hydro-electric potential is located, much of which comes from melt water
off snow-capped peaks, including from Tibet.

Chulalongkorn University academic Dr. Ukrit Pathmanand noted a potential
for distrust and discord to emerge, if the changes to the river impact on
livelihoods within the Mekong sub-region. “Non-traditional” security
problems will fester, with disgruntled people losing fishery income or
farmland due to changes in the river, thereby threatening social unrest.

However, Dr. Ukrit added that there are positives and negatives to dam
construction––with additional hydropower to be weighed against potential
damage caused to the environment and to livelihoods.

A four-country intergovernmental body called the Mekong River Commission
aims to better-manage development along the waterway. The MRC had its
first summit meeting in Hua Hin, Thailand, in April 2010. The body
comprises Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, but China and Burma have
only accepted observer status. Pornlert Lattanan, the president of General
Electric (Thailand), said that it is unlikely that Cambodia and Laos will
raise the Mekong issue with Beijing, which has close relations with both.

This was seen at the MRC Summit, where Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen
put the low waters in the Mekong region down purely to climate change,
rather than Chinese dams. His Thai counterpart Abhisit Vejjajiva was more
nuanced, saying that “this summit is sending a message that all countries
in the Mekong Region, both its upper and lower parts, are stakeholders,
and we all have to take joint responsibility for its long-term
sustainability.” In June Thai officials went further, with Prasarn
Maruekpithak, the representative at a MRC meeting in Vietnam, saying that
“China’s four dams on the upper part of the Mekong River have already
destroyed the river’s ecosystem. Now this giant nation plans to build 12
dams more on the lower part.”

Vietnam is concerned about the dams, some of which are planned for
upstream in Cambodia and Laos. Speaking on June 29, Le Duc Trung, the
director general of the Vietnam National Mekong Committee, is reported to
have said, “Vietnam has...great concerns over the research results on the
projects [the proposed dams], especially impacts on agriculture and
fisheries likely caused by their dams'.

With the dam projects threatening to transform the river into a “series of
lakes,” Dr. Cronin suggested that “a tipping point” looms for the Mekong,
releasing a report and DVD to this effect recently.

“The impact on fisheries will be almost immediate,” if any more dams are
built, he says.

However a representative of a company involved in a project along the
Mekong, Thanin Bumrungsap of the ITALIAN – THAI Development Public Company
Ltd., said that he believed that the tipping point had already been
reached, as it was unlikely that many of the proposed dam projects will be
canceled.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

August 12, Associated Press
New refugee students in NY get ready for US school – Deepti Hajela

New York— For their first fire drill, teachers at the Refugee Summer Youth
Academy gathered their students, leading them out of the building to show
them what to do during drills in the upcoming school year.

But one thing was missing: the sirens. They had been muted, for fear
blaring alarms could trigger terror in children who recently arrived from
war zones and other conflict areas where sirens can signal danger.

The silent fire drill was part of the balancing act for staff at the
6-week summer program that helps children who have survived wars and
refugee camps prepare for a new experience — American public school.

It's not just about the academics, said Elizabeth Demchak, principal of
the school run by the International Rescue Committee, which works with
refugees and asylum-seekers.

For some of the kids, formal education has been haphazard or nonexistent,
Demchak said. For others, school consisted of sitting and taking notes
surrounded by dozens of others with a teacher reciting a lecture.

Preparing them means helping them learn how to go to school along with
what they learn there.

"When they enter the classroom in September, things won't be so new for
them, and having taken away that freshness, that newness, you're also
taking away that fear," Demchak said.

That's where something like the fire drill comes in. Running a drill,
explaining what it is, can help keep students from reacting negatively
when they experience it in school.

"If a child has lived in an environment, especially in a conflict area,
where they're accustomed to hearing sirens and sirens are a signal for an
emergency ... when they hear an alarm going off in their school it may
trigger a certain memory, it may make them act in a certain way," Demchak
said.

"We're teaching them how to disassociate certain triggers that had a
negative connotation with things that are here to help and protect them,"
she said.

The Youth Academy program has about 120 kids this summer who will be in
kindergarten to 12th grade this school year. The students' homelands are a
litany of the world's hot spots, combat zones and conflict areas: Iraq.
Afghanistan. Sierra Leone. Burma.

Most have been here for less than 18 months. Some will be starting school
in America for the first time.

In the program, the children work on their English, writing and math. They
take art, dance and music. They go on field trips.


>From the length of the day to changing rooms between classes to raising

their hands and interacting with teachers, the program tries to mimic what
students will experience.

That was a blessing for Helen Samuels, 17, who attended two years ago and
works there this summer.

Half-Burmese and half-Thai, she hadn't been in school for two years when
she arrived here in June 2008 from the refugee camps along the
Burma-Thailand border.

She was a frightened girl and the program helped reassure her.

"We had to learn all the basics of how to be a student, starting from you
had to come to class on time," Samuels said. "It helped me, to prepare me
to see school is not something scary."

Among those starting this fall is Basserou Kaba, a 16-year-old from Ivory
Coast, an African nation divided between government and rebel forces.

The teen, who was in 12th grade before coming here in April, will start in
10th grade to improve his English.

He is happy that U.S. teachers expect students to ask questions, unlike
those in his homeland.

"In my country, the teacher teach what he wants," Kaba said. "You don't
understand, it's your problem."

Kaba admits he's a little nervous about his language skills but says he's
now comfortable with the idea of going to school.

"In this program, I came to know what is the school in U.S.," he said.

The IRC program and others like it can play a vital role in helping them
build their lives in a new country, said Michele Pistone, a law professor
at Villanova University School of Law who specializes in refugee issues.

New arrivals can benefit from being taught such common practices for
Americans, she said, as parental involvement in a child's education.

"In the United States, our system, there's much more interaction between
parents and teachers than there is elsewhere around the world," Pistone
said. "A lot of the refugees I've worked with — because they're coming
from an environment where there isn't that expectation of involvement —
they tend not to be."

The IRC program, which ends Friday, holds parent-teacher conferences and
encourages parents to get involved.

One who did is Bushra Naji, 53, who was a teacher in Iraq for 25 years
before leaving for Syria in 2006 and the United States in 2008.

Now she volunteers, helping students in kindergarten through second grade.

In Iraq, she said, she taught English by writing on a blackboard and
having her students repeat after her. Here, she said, her eyes shining and
her smile bright, it's "very exciting" to see the teachers interact with
the children.

"I wanted to be younger," she said, "to be teacher here."

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

August 12, The Diplomat (Japan)
India’s shameful Burma ploy – Sanjay Kumar

The red carpet welcome India offered Burma’s leader is aimed at countering
China’s influence. He’s holding the two to ransom.

For better or worse, countries will often sacrifice their principles at
the altar of geopolitics. It’s a fact no more evident lately than with
India, which appears to be disregarding the muzzling of democracy in
eastern neighbour Burma (Myanmar) to cosy up to the ruling military
juntathere.

Just a few years ago, India would’ve made an issue out of the illegal
detention of popularly elected National League for Democracy leader Aung
San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for long stretches over the
past 20 years. In early 2008, for example, an Indian Foreign Ministry
spokesman confirmed that Burma had been advised that there was now a
greater urgency for political reform and that this process ‘had to be
broad-based to include all sections of society including Aung San Suu
Kyi.’

But just two years later, such pressure appears to have been abandoned as
the world’slargest democracy forgets its placeand deepensits relationship
with thejunta.

The dynamics of thisnew relationshipwere on full display duringthe visit
of Burmese leader Gen. Than Shwe, who was in Indialate last month and met
with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. During Than Shwe’s visit, the
two leaders issued a joint statement and announced a number of deals,
including five accords on counter-terrorism co-operation and soft loans
from India that included $60 million for a road construction project and
about $10 million for machinery purchases.

Such agreements are ostensibly aimed at winning over the regime in a
nation that Freedom House found this year to be among the nine least free
countries in the world. Indeed, last year the organisation specifically
called on India to exert pressure over Suu Kyi’s trial—in which she was
accused of breaking the terms of her house arrest—with Executive Director
Jennifer Windsor arguing that:

‘As the world's largest democracy and a regional leader, India has an
obligation to defend Suu Kyi and at least attempt to influence the actions
of Burma’s ruling junta.’

But India’s red carpet welcome is about more than coaxing Burma into
better behavior. It’s also about countering Chinese influence in the
country. And with this in mind, Than Shwe’s visit made one thing clear—the
junta is exploiting both nations’ fear of each other to hold them to
ransom.

The junta should be blushing with the attention it’s getting from its two
giant neighbours, which is allowing it to thumb its nose at Western
nations calling for it to rethink its behavior.

While India has been busy spending millions trying to improve transport
links, Chinese firms have been pouring billions of dollars into
infrastructure projects, including a deal signed by China National
Petroleum Corporation in December 2008 to buy natural gas from the Shwe
fields. CNPC has also, according to Human Rights Watch, reportedly begun
constructing what will ‘ultimately be two major energy pipelines across
Burma to China
(that will) represent some of the biggest infrastructure
projects ever undertaken in Burma.’

China is also believed to be a major supplier of arms to the repressive
state.

With Chinese leaders apparently showing little inclination to pressure the
regime through, for example, its membership of the UN’s ‘Group of Friends
of Myanmar,’ India has decided to follow suit by putting its democratic
ideals on the backburner. Never mind that freedom of expression is stifled
or that GDP per capita is a shameful $469—India has pressed ahead with
major development projects including the Sittwe port and a project on the
Kaladan River.

Troublingly, while the Indian government lavished praise on Than Shwe
during his five-day visit, there was little (if any) attention given in
Indian newspapers to the once nobly pursued cause of calling for the
release of Suu Kyi. In this, the media appears to reflect the broader
thinking in India that suppressed democracy in a neighbour is less
important than trying to get a leg up on a growing rival.

But the question is—what price will India pay in terms of future
credibility for its political and strategic expediency now? With few
apparently willing to ask the government this question, we’ve no choice
but to wait and see.

____________________________________

August 12, Reuters AlterNet
Unloved and unwelcome: Myanmar migrants in Thailand

Ranong, Thailand – We knew we were approaching Ranong when we saw a
military checkpoint.

This southwestern Thai border town has for years been a major gateway for
migrants from neighbouring Myanmar seeking a better, freer life -- away
from the oppressive military rule at home.

Ranong's official population is a little over 90,000, but aid workers and
locals estimate there are around 200,000 Myanmar migrants, excluding those
working in plantations across the province, that have settled here.

Checkpoints have been set up in the lush town to ensure that Myanmar
migrants -- most of whom are not allowed to leave Ranong -- remain within
it.

The imprint of the migrants is clearly visible with signs in Myanmar
plastering everything from gold shops and stores selling electronics to
beauty parlours and advertisements for phone cards. Passengers on the bus
converse in Myanmar. Women in traditional Myanmar attire walk on the
street and the hectic daily fish market is full of Myanmar workers buying,
selling and processing all manner of seafood.

"If you see people walking or on a bicycle, most likely they are Burmese
because they can't afford to go by any other means," a Myanmar aid worker
told me, calling the people by its former name.

Almost all of them have come by illegal routes, usually on a cargo boat,
running away from a harsh regime that has discriminated, abused and
exploited them. What was once a rich country has now become one of the
poorest in Southeast Asia.

TENSION RISING

As with any place that has a large migrant population, there is a palpable
sense of tension between the hosts and the guests.

A few weeks ago, the government scrapped plans to grant driving licenses
to migrants when some 200 motorcyclists protested. They were worried
migrant workers would steal their jobs and smuggle drugs or more illegal
workers if allowed to drive, local reports said, even though the licenses
were for private use.

A foreign aid worker who has lived in Ranong for a few years recounted a
recent incident in which a Myanmar migrant was beaten to death after a
motorcycle accident involving a Thai resident.

Migrant workers are also vulnerable to police extortion and arrest and the
tension translates into the workplace as well.

Most migrants in Ranong are ethnic minorities from southern Myanmar with
little or no education and they end up doing low-paid, menial jobs in the
fishing and seafood processing industries where the demand for cheap
labour is high.

Many earn between 100 and 200 baht ($3 to $6) a day. The lucky ones
receive work permits applied for them by their owners -- although they
have to pay for it themselves -- but rarely get to see the documentation.

Some like construction worker Aung are more philosophical.

"We can't blame the owners for being tough because there are many bad
migrants as well," he told me. "We know people who would get their work
permit and borrow money from owners and then run away to Bangkok or
central Thailand."

STATELESS AND IN DEBT

Some are also stateless, which means they are not registered as citizens
of Myanmar. Often this is because they live in remote areas or they belong
to an ethnic minority that has angered the military junta.

Then there are kids who were born in Ranong to migrant parents, but have
no birth certificate or documentation to show they are Myanmar nationals.

I met one, a playful four-year-old, in a crumbling building some 30
Myanmar families call home. His mother, Myat, comes from an island in Mon
state and gave birth to her three children in Ranong. While her husband
works on a fishing boat, she makes ends meet collecting mussels. Their
combined income is around $150 per month.

"There's never enough money to spend, let alone save," she said. "I have a
debt of about 6,000 baht ($150) at 20 percent interest."

They live on the ground floor of a dilapidated three-storey building
patched together with corrugated iron sheets and bits of wood, for which
she has to pay $30 a month. The wooden beams in their old bedroom had
become so worn out it's a safety hazard, so the whole family live, cook,
eat and sleep in a five-metre-square room.

I asked her why she hasn't moved out to a better place.

"I've been staying here for 14 years and the owner is good and flexible,"
she said. "I owe eight months' rent but he hasn't thrown us out yet. Other
places won't tolerate this."

For Myat and her stateless children, this squalor is better than being in
Myanmar where the living is even harder.

"It's actually easier to make money here. I have to live where it's
suitable for the family even if I'm not happy," she said.

Reuters AlertNet is not responsible for the content of external websites.

____________________________________

August 12, Democratic Voice of Burma
Na Kham Mwe: “we will pay with our lives” – Naw Noreen

On the occasion of Karen Martyrs day, DVB caught up with the leading
dissenting voice against the Burmese military government’s Border Guard
Force (BGF).

After most commanders in the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA)
accepted the controversial BGF which will see ethnic armies assimilated
into the SPDC fold, one colonel refused the deal which would be a death
knell to the DKBA and seemingly their dream of Karen autonomy, despite
promises to the contrary from the SPDC when they joined them in 1994; his
name is Colonel Na Kham Mwe a.k.a. Saw Hla Bwe.

Here he scuppers rumours that he will rejoin his former comrades in the
Karen National Union (KNU) who the DKBA split from in 1994 yet describes
the cynical reasoning of most of the DKBA commanders and strikes a defiant
note on the anniversary of the death of the great Karen fighter and
leader, Saw Ba U Gyi, who was killed by Burmese forces 60 years ago today:

Why are you against the BGF transformation?

Because it is not a genuine BGF. The transformation will give us
legitimacy, however we cannot look for just our own self-advantage – there
is no positive outcome or freedom for the people and the Buddhist
religion. We are the people’s army and we were born from the people. For
this life, I look forward to just working for philanthropy.

What do you mean by ‘philanthropy’?

Freedom and benefit.

We have learnt that all the other DKBA brigades have agreed to the BGF
transformation. What is your view on them?

They [other DKBA commanders] have prioritised their own self-interest.
They already had so much wealth and so many possessions, yet they agreed
to the BGF transformation as they looked for more self-benefit and
advantages.

What is the fate of those who transformed?

They are no longer DKBA. They are now BGF units that follow orders [of the
Burmese Army] and carry no authority by themselves. However, the
transformation is good for their own self-interest.

We heard the DKBA flags in the brigades that transformed are being
replaced with Tattmadaw [Burmese army] flags. Can you confirm this?

That is correct. The DKBA flags and the Sasana [Buddhist] flags are being
taken down at their checkpoints and replaced with the military flags. This
makes it obvious even to children how very little freedom and authority is
given to them.

What do you do next? Will you still stand as the DKBA or re-join the KNU?

We will just stick with the DKBA – to serve and protect the people and the
Sasana. We will never betray that.

You were part of the DKBA since it was formed in 1994. What was the
initial aim?

To protect our people’s lives, prosperity and the Sasana.

And how close are you to that goal after 15 years?

It turned out that most [DKBA members] were just looking for self-profit
rather than to follow the direction set by the Sayadaw [Thuzana,
influential Karen Buddhist monk revered by the DKBA] to serve the
livelihood, freedom and benefit of the people and the development of
Buddhism.

What did the Burmese Army offer for the BGF agreement?

They offered to pay our [brigade] 20 million Kyat per month and business
deals and advantages plus a house and a car for me.

What will you do when the Burmese Army attacks you?

We will not attack them first. Sayadaw told us to love all creatures not
only just people. It’s easy for us to fight but we don’t want to kill. But
we will have no choice but to fight back when they attack us.

What will you do the Burmese Army turns the now-BGF DKBA forces against you?

Then we will pay with our lives to protect our people and the Sasana.

What is Sayadaw’s view on the BGF?

He wishes to see unity among all people. He doesn’t like what has happened
but there is nothing he can do.

What developments have there been in economy, livelihood and security, in
DKBA territories over the past 15 years?

Better roads and communication, and more business freedom. There are a lot
of developments.

What kind of damage or impact do you think will be inflicted to these
developments if there is fighting due to your defiance on the BGF plan?

There will still be a lot of damage and suffering inflicted upon the
livelihood of the people if we transform. We would rather die fighting
than see our people suffer.

Is there any chance you will re-join the KNU?

We will not re-join the KNU however; our [Karen] blood will tell when time
comes. Our goal is not only focused on Karen people but the people of all
ethnicity in the Union.

What do you want to say to the Karen people and the people of Burma
regarding your decision with the BGF transformation?

I want to tell them that we have made a truthful stand by all people of
Burma. I’m not afraid to die in this life but I am afraid to see the
people in suffering – this is the whole reason for my stance.

Any message from you for the Karen people on the Karen Martyrs’ Day?

This is about our people and the freedom. Keep the honesty and look for
the good of many but not only for self-prosperity, as Saw Ba U Gyi’s [KNU
founder] ideology espoused.

Any message to former DKBA comrades?

I would like to tell them to balance out rights and wrongs in the path
they are taking, and to re-think carefully and focus on the good of the
people.

Any message for the senior general Than Shwe and other SPDC leaders?

Don’t look only for the good of oneself and one’s family but look for the
good of the whole country and the people and do honest work to bring about
peace and justice.