BurmaNet News, August 17, 2010

[Editor]

August 17, 2010 Issue #4021

QUOTE OF THE DAY
“I feel I'm a clown, I'm a joke. I just want to do nice things so my kids
can respect me. I want to live in a hut in Burma." – Mike Tyson, former
World Heavyweight Champion (Toronto Sun)

INSIDE BURMA
Mizzima: Political parties face old foes of time and money
Mizzima: Journal becomes fourth suspended in six weeks
Irrawaddy: Imprisoned student leader denounces election

ON THE BORDER
Nation (Thailand): Death railway in Burma's Shan State

BUSINESS / TRADE
Mizzima: Burma to lease over 100,000 acres of Arakanese land to Vietnam

ASEAN
AFP: ASEAN welcomes Myanmar poll date

REGIONAL
Yonhap (South Korea): S. Korea to address suspected Myanmar, N. Korea
nuclear issue
Kantarawaddy: Burmese people keen to head for Malaysia

INTERNATIONAL
Washington Post: U.S. charges Britain's Barclays Bank with violating
sanctions against Cuba, Iran
Toronto Sun: Mike Tyson eyeing Burma trip

OPINION / OTHER
Huffington Post (US): Thailand sets a poor example to Burma – Robert
Amsterdam
Irrawaddy: Constitutional truth or trick? – Htet Aung

PRESS RELEASE
BCUK: Barclays must disclose business dealings with Burma




____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

August 17, Mizzima News
Political parties face old foes of time and money – Ko Wai and Khaing Suu

Chiang Mai – With just 13 days left for parties to submit candidate names
to the junta’s electoral body, lack of funds has driven many to reduce the
number of contestants to enter Burma’s first elections in 20 years on
November 7, party leaders say.

The junta’s electoral watchdog, the Union Election Commission (UEC), on
Friday announced the election dates, designated constituencies for
parliament and called on political parties to submit their candidate lists
between August 16 and August 30. The period was too short for the
political parties and was causing them problems, the leaders said.

“For our party, only the rich can be candidates because of the short time
period [allowed]. Most of the potential candidates don’t have money. It’s
very difficult to collect funds”, Democratic Party (Myanmar) chairman Thu
Wai told Mizzima.

At first, the party had aimed to find about 200 candidates to stand in the
upcoming polls, but the party needed to reduce the numbers of the
candidates because every candidate needed to pay 500,000 Kyat (about
US$500) to the junta’s electoral commission.

The Democratic Party (Myanmar) will contest in the Irrawaddy, Mandalay,
Rangoon and Tenasserim divisions and Mon and Arakan states.

Rakhine Nationals Progressive Party executive member Tha Hla Aung, who
will contest the Pouktaw constituency of Arakan State, said: “I must ask
for 500,000 Kyat (about US$500) from my family. And I need to spend about
one million Kyat for the electoral campaign. My party cannot give that
amount of money.”

Similarly, Nyo Min Lwin – the Peace and Diversity Party (PDP) chairman,
who lives in Thingangyun Township in Rangoon but will contest a seat in
Pyinmana Township, Mandalay – said that although he estimated he would
need about 1.5-2 million Kyat ahead of the election, he lacked the 500,000
Kyat (about US$500) to register as a candidate.

In keeping with section 16 of the junta’s party registration laws, a party
needs to contest in at least three constituencies for it to survive, so
PDP first vice-chairman Sandar Oo will contest in Bogalay Township,
Irrawaddy Division, general secretary Nay Myo Wai will stand in Mingaladon
Township, Rangoon and joint general secretary Aung Myo Oo will contest in
Kyeemyindaing Township, Rangoon.

Further examples of party poverty were described by 88 Generation Student
Youths (Union of Myanmar) vice-chaiman Than Oo, who said that most parties
were in a state of chaos because of the time constraints and that his
party had also encountered financial problems. They were forced to rethink
which of their 100 nominated candidates should stand.

Some candidates even have to front their own fees. National Democratic
Force (NDF) candidate Khin Maung Yi, who will contest in the Ahlone
constituency in Rangoon Division, would deposit 500,000 Kyat to the
commission with his own money, he said.


>From money limits to time, parties are also railing against the short

period they will be allowed in their bids to win electorates over.
Electoral rules state every party may withdraw their lists of standing
candidates before September 3, and they can then start campaigning, but
this leaves them only two months to conduct campaigns.

Thu Wai, the former chairman of the dissolved Democracy Party, which stood
in the 1990 elections, and a former political prisoner of the ruling
military junta, said the period assigned to conduct electoral campaigns
was very short.

“In the 1990 election, we had enough time 
 We could conduct campaigning
freely and did not need to rush as he had about one year to out on the
hustings for the 1990 election”, he said.

People did not like the junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development
Party (USDP), so the more time allowed other parties to conduct the
electoral campaigns, the less votes the USDP would win, which was why the
UEC had limited the time period, Thu Wai said.

PDP chief Nyo Min Lwin, who was born in Pyinmana, two miles (3.2
kilometres) east of the junta’s capital of Naypydiaw, said that his main
rival in his Pyinmana constituency was from the USDP, but that he was
unconcerned because he had siblings and relatives in the town. He had
conducted electoral campaigns there in 1990, so he had a lot of
experience, he said adding that his party had five candidates.

“I’ll visit to villages on a motorcycle to conduct electoral campaigning.
I’ll circulate pamphlets about my political philosophies, biographies and
future plans for our country,” he said. “Moreover, I’ll talk to them in
person. But, I don’t have money to build stages to preach.”

PDP leaders will meet at Aung Myo Oo’s house next Tuesday and will then
submit their lists of candidates and the required 1,000 party members and
pay the fees at the UEC head office in Naypyidaw before August 29.

Tha Hla Aung said members his party’s main rival, the USDP, had received
sweetheart deals on permits to run fishery and agricultural businesses so
local residents in Arakan State were against them. Arakanese wanted to
support Arakanese ethnic parties such as his, so he was unconcerned about
success in the upcoming elections.

The UEC on Friday has set the election date for November 7. Forty of the
47 political parties were granted permission to form, the rest had either
been rejected or were awaiting a decision. Just 15 political parties have
submitted lists of party members.
____________________________________

August 17, Mizzima News
Journal becomes fourth suspended in six weeks – Salai Han Thar San

New Delhi –The Modern Times journal this week became the fourth
publication of its kind in six weeks that Burmese state censors have
suspended, as it had changed an article’s title, according to a journal
editor.

The suspension followed the change of a title of an article about weather
conditions on the cover of the journal’s volume one, issue five from the
headline approved by the junta’s censorship board, the Press Scrutiny and
Registration Division, a weekly journal editor told Mizzima.

“The new title means ‘Will September return?’ and the journal failed to
submit the new design of its cover, which is why the journal was
suspended”, the editor said.

“No one knows for how many weeks the journal will be suspended 
 the
director of the censorship board went to Naypyidaw to attend a meeting.
Only after he gets back to Rangoon can he decide on the length of the
suspension period,” he said.

Mizzima was unable to reach The Modern Times Journal for comment.

The first issue of the journal, which contains general topics, was first
published in the middle of last month by owner Mhway Thida Thein, wife of
Burma Overseas Seafarers Association secretary Soe Min Aung. Its offices
are located in Botahtaung Township in Rangoon. The editor-in-chief is Aung
Ye Maung Maung and the owner of the publishing licence is Myat Soe
(Hlaing).

“The censorship board seemed scared that the new title ‘Will September
return?’, might cause the public to remember the ‘saffron revolution’,
which happened in September 2007”, a reporter from a weekly journal said.
He was referring to nationwide uprisings against fuel-price increases led
by monks that started in August but developed into broader public protests
in September.

Moreover, rumours circulated that the journal was suspended to avoid make
unwarranted public concern over meteorological conditions later this year.
A government weatherman had predicted that the La Nina phenomenon – of
wetter, cooler conditions – would start taking effect in September, to
reach a peak in November.

The censorship board is managed by joint director Myo Myin Maung on behalf
of outgoing chief Major Tint Swe, who is in Naypyidaw for a meeting.

An editor said the suspensions were part of a trend of even tighter
oversight by the notorious state censors, offered referred to in
publishing circles as the “Press Kempeitai”, after the Japanese army’s
brutal military police wing, which was part of occupation forces in Burma
during the Second World War.

“The relationship between journalists and the censorship board has
worsened. In the past, if a journal made mistakes, it would merely receive
a warning. But, currently, if a journal made something wrong, it could be
suspended”, the editor said.

In May, The Voice journal was temporarily suspended because it reported
that a Seven Days News journal reporter had filed an assault case against
actress Htet Htet Moe Oo, after she hit the reporter in response to
questions about her private life.

Similarly, early last month, the Envoy News and Popular journals were
suspended for a week because they featured actresses in cover photos
deemed “incompatible with Burmese culture”. Late last month state censors
suspended The Voice for two weeks over Aung Htut’s article “Concept and
Process” on constitutional issues.

____________________________________

August 17, Irrawaddy
Imprisoned student leader denounces election – Ko Htwe

Burma's election will be insignificant without the participation of
pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, according to Htay Kywe, one of the
imprisoned leaders of the 88 Generation Students group, who is currently
serving a 65-year sentence in western Burma.

The message was relayed by Htay Kywe's brother-in-law, Phyo Min Thein, who
spoke to The Irrawaddy on Tuesday. Phyo Min Thein recently resigned from
the Union Democratic Party and paid a family visit on Aug. 9 to Htay Kywe
in remote Buthitaung Prison in Arakan State.

In this May 27, 2007, file photo leaders of the 88 Generation Student
Group, Ko Ko Gyi, front left, Min Ko Naing, center, and Htay Kywe, right,
form a human chain as they walk forward to face the authorities, during
one of their democracy campaign in Rangoon. (Photo: AP)
“There will be more confusion and disputes at an international level if
the election is held without Aung San Suu Kyi,” Phyo Min Thein said on
behalf of his brother-in-law. “The disdvantages outweigh the advantages.”

He said that Htay Kywe called on the army, political forces, pro-democracy
parties and ethnic groups to work together toward an “all inclusive”
solution to the country's political problems.

Phyo Min Thein said that while he spoke to Htay Kywe in prison, several
officers from special branch police monitored them.

Htay Kywe was first arrested in 1991 and incarcerated in Rangoon’s
notorious Insein Prison for 15 years. He was transferred to Tharrawaddy
Prison in 1995 and finished his jail term in July 2001. But he was
continually detained by authorities under the “Protection of the State
from Threat Act” (10 A), which allows the military authorities the right
to detain suspects arbitrarily.

After his release, Htay Kywe co-founded the 88 Generation Students group
along with Min Ko Naing, Ko Ko Gyi, Min Zeya and Pyone Cho. From 2005 to
2007, the group conducted several nonviolent activities, including group
visits to political prisoners’ homes and holding Buddhist ceremonies at
Shwedagon Pagoda in Rangoon commemorating political prisoners.

Htay Kywe, Min Ko Naing, Ko Ko Gyi, Pyone Cho (aka Htay Win Aung), Mya
Aye, Htay Kywe, Hla Myo Naung, Aung Thu, Nyan Lin and Aung Naing (aka Myo
Aung Naing) were each sentenced on Nov. 11, 2007, at a court session in
Maubin, southwest of Rangoon, to 65 years in prison for their roles in the
anti-government uprising in 2007.

Min Ko Naing and Ko Ko Gyi were transferred to Kengtung Prison in Shan
State, 735 miles (1,1750 km) northeast of Rangoon; Mya Aye was transferred
to Loikaw Prison in Karenni State, eastern Burma; Pyone Cho was
transferred to Kawthaung Prison in Tenasserim Division in southern Burma;
Hla Myo Naung was transferred to Myitkyina Prison in Kachin State, 900
miles (1,440 km) north of Rangoon; Aung Thu was transferred to Putao
Prison in Kachin State; and Aung Naing was transferred to Kalaymyo Prison
in Sagaing Division, 680 miles (1,088 km) north of Rangoon.

Buthitaung Prison is notorious for its harsh treatment of political
prisoners and its severely cold weather.

“Htay Kywe has lost a lot of weight and his eyesight is a little poor,”
said Phyo Min Thein. “He spends his time reading and meditating. He is
also studying economics.”

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

August 17, The Nation (Thailand)
Death railway in Burma's Shan State

Shan human rights organisations on Tuesday accused the Burmese government
of carrying out a sinister agenda aimed at wiping out rebel armies and
strengthen its grip on the country's ethnic nationalities in the name of
development.

In a report released today, the Shan Women's Action Network (Swan) and the
Shan Human Rights Foundation (SHRF) dismissed the claim that the
construction of a new 361-kilometre railway between southern and eastern
Shan State will promote development and facilitate passenger travel.

"The speed and ruthlessness with which the railway is being carved through
this isolated border area reveal a much more sinister agenda," the report
said.

The group denounced the project, calling it "an expansion of the Burmese
regime's war apparatus in Shan State."

The two organisations have documented how thousands of acres of farmlands
have been confiscated along the route and that farmers have been
threatened with prison should they complain about this army project.

The railway cuts strategically between the northern and southern
territories of the United Wa State Army (UWSA), Burma's biggest ceasefire
group, which has resisted pressure by the junta to surrender their weapons
and become a Border Guard Force under the command of the country's army.

The new line will enable rapid deployment of heavy artillery into this
remote mountainous region in the event of an offensive against the UWSA or
other ethnic resistance forces, according to the report. UWSA is a
25,000-strong ethnic army that entered a ceasefire agreement with the
junta in 1989.

"This is not a passenger railway, it's for the army's tanks and
howitzers," the report quoted Ying Harn Fah of Swan as saying.

"The regime is telling the world that their 2010 elections will bring
change to Burma, but on the ground they are digging in for war," said SHRF
researcher Puen Kham. "Burma's neighbours should think twice about
investing in these war zones."

According to the report, the railway will pass through the Mong Kok
coalfields, opposite Thailand's Chiang Rai province. The field is a joint
investment between Thai businessmen and Burmese authorities to excavate
millions of tons of lignite and build a power plant to sell electricity to
Thailand.

Swan and SHRF are urging Thai and potential investors to reconsider their
business plan in this project.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

August 17, Mizzima News
Burma to lease over 100,000 acres of Arakanese land to Vietnam – Maung Aye

Taungup: The Burmese military government is now preparing to least 129,000
acres of land in Arakan State to Vietnam for rubber cultivation, according
to a report of local journal Hot News published on 13 August, 2010.

The report stated that the Burmese military authority has already agreed
to lease the land to a Vietnamese company, but did not mention the name of
the company.

If true, most of the land located between Taungup Township and Ma Ei
Sub-Township in Southern Arakan will be leased to the Vietnamese
corporation in the near future. A survey of land in the two townships,
including mountain ranges near Ma Ei Sub Township, was recently completed
by the survey department.

According to a local source, officials from Arakan State's survey
department in Sittwe traveled to the area along with several officials
from the local survey department last week to inspect and survey the lands
located in the eastern and western parts of Ma Ei Township.

In Arakan State, rubber plantation projects began several years ago in
1995, and there are now 2,231 privately-owned acres of rubber plantation
as well as 978 acres owned by Industry Ministry 1.

The Burmese military government also agreed to lease 50,000 acres of farm
land to Bangladesh in 2007, but the project has not yet been implemented
for reasons that are unknown.

____________________________________
ASEAN

August 17, Agence France Presse
ASEAN welcomes Myanmar poll date

Hanoi – The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on Tuesday said
it welcomed Myanmar's planned November 7 elections, which Western nations
have said will occur under "oppressive" conditions.

Myanmar's junta announced the poll date, the country's first in two
decades, last Friday.

"ASEAN welcomes this decision by Myanmar," said a statement by Vietnam,
which currently chairs the 10-member bloc that includes Myanmar.

"In this regard, ASEAN encourages Myanmar to further accelerate progress
in the implementation of the roadmap for national reconciliation and
democracy," it said, underscoring the importance of a free, fair and
"inclusive" vote.

The November 7 date falls about a week before democracy leader Aung San
Suu Kyi's current house arrest is due to expire.

Her party won the last polls in 1990 but was never allowed to take office,
and she has spent much of the past 20 years in detention.

As a serving prisoner, she is barred from standing in the election.

Britain, the United States, and Canada have said the November 7 vote will
be held in an "oppressive" political environment.

The ASEAN statement expressed a readiness to "render assistance as deemed
appropriate by Myanmar."

ASEAN has a principle of non-interference in its members' affairs, but
Myanmar has been a source of embarrassment for more democratic members of
the bloc.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

August 17, Yonhap (South Korea)
S. Korea to address suspected Myanmar, N. Korea nuclear issue: ministry

Seoul – South Korea will talk about possible nuclear cooperation between
Myanmar and North Korea when a senior diplomat visits the Southeast Asian
country next week, the foreign ministry here announced Monday.

Vice Foreign Minister Shin Kak-soo is scheduled to visit Myanmar from Aug.
19-21, where he will deliver Seoul's message encouraging fair elections on
Nov. 7, according to ministry spokesman Kim Young-son. The elections will
be the country's first in two decades.

Shin is also expected to address the suspected nuclear ties between
Myanmar and North Korea.

"Our government is keeping a close eye on possible military cooperation
between Myanmar and North Korea, including nuclear cooperation," Kim said.
"We're working with the United States and other relevant states but we
have not yet confirmed anything regarding nuclear ties. But Shin will have
discussions on North Korea-Myanmar relations of late during his visit."

North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui-chun visited his Myanmarian
counterpart U Nyan Win in late July, the first trip to the Southeast Asian
country by a North Korean foreign minister in 27 years, amid U.S. warnings
to Myanmar against nuclear cooperation with the North.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was once quoted as saying, "We
continue to be concerned by the reports that Burma may be seeking
assistance from North Korea with regard to a nuclear program," referring
to Myanmar by its former name.

State Department spokesman Philip Crowley also said the U.S. doesn't "see
the transparency" in the Myanmar-North Korea ties and that Myanmar has
obligations to avoid engaging North Korea, which he called "a serial
proliferator."

Myanmar severed ties with North Korea in 1983 after Pyongyang's bombing of
a South Korean presidential delegation on its visit to the Southeast Asian
nation. Relations were restored in 2007.

____________________________________

August 17, Kantarawaddy Times
Burmese people keen to head for Malaysia – Ko Nee

The Organization of Karenni Development (OKD), based in Malaysia seems to
be welcoming residents in Burma, when many want to go overseas for jobs
despite being tortured and arrested by the Malaysian police, according to
sources.

A local resident in Loikaw said, “The people are not being forced to come
to Malaysia but many people apply because the travel fees are cheaper than
in other countries and it is easy to get UN identity cards. Again drought
has hit Burma making Burmese people suffer from poverty. So they target
going to Malaysia."

The travel fees to Singapore are 300,000 Kyat, while to Malaysia it is
150,000 Kyat.

"Many people submitted applications to the foreign ministry to work in
Malaysia and some to Singapore. There will be no more football players for
a team during our township competitions, because many youths have gone
abroad," said a youth in Pruso Township.

The ethnic Burmese refugee population in Malaysia is increasing by the day
with on an average 30 to 40 new arrivals registering with the community
centre, said the Karenni organization.

Patrick James, Chairman of OKD told to Kantarawaddy Times, "The OKD tells
people to come to Malaysia by helping new arrivals, working in remote
areas and even those who have no ID cards and face arrest. If someone has
to pay 100 ringgits to get a job through brokers, they (OKD) just ask the
people not  to pay. However, the salary is not high if they find jobs by
themselves, but it is secure," he added.

According to the UNHCR there are 49,000 refugees and asylum seekers in
Malaysia, of whom approximately 45,000 are from Burma – with the majority
of the Burmese refugees reportedly Rohingya Muslims from Burma's Arakan
state. They are also from Kachin, Arakan, Mon, Karenni, Karen state among
others.

In the current situation, OKD has a list of 963 Karenni people, who
registered as refugees and 40 people have already resettled in third
countries, mostly in USA, Canada, New Zealand and Norway.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

August 16, Washington Post
U.S. charges Britain's Barclays Bank with violating sanctions against
Cuba, Iran – Spencer S. Hsu

Federal prosecutors filed criminal charges against Barclays Bank on
Monday, alleging that it violated U.S. financial sanctions against Cuba,
Iran, Libya, Sudan and Burma for more than a decade and accusing the
British bank of knowingly aiding banks in those countries with potentially
$500 million in transactions from March 1995 to September 2006.

In papers filed in federal court in the District, the U.S. government
alleged that Barclays, through its U.S. dollar clearing operation at its
New York branch, followed directions to omit the names of banks in
sanctioned countries when sending payments to the United States, stripped
off identifying information, routed payments through an internal account
to hide links to those countries and deliberately used less transparent
"cover payments."

A spokeswoman for the Department of Justice did not immediately comment
about the criminal information, which charged the bank with one count of
violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and one count of
trading with the enemy and which was signed by Jennifer Shasky Calvery,
chief of the U.S. Justice Department's asset forfeiture and
money-laundering section.

A London spokeswoman for Barclays said a statement was forthcoming and
referred questions to the bank in New York. A spokesman for Barclays in
New York declined to comment.

A 1 p.m. hearing was planned before U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan.

The U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control oversees
bans on U.S. entities from dealing with Cuba that date to the Kennedy
administration, with Libya to 1986, Iran to 1995, and Burma and Sudan to
1997.

In September 2008, Barclays purchased the U.S. and New York operations of
bankrupt Lehman Brothers for about $1.3 billion, a massive deal that
remains before a federal bankruptcy court in New York.

In court papers pending Sullivan's approval, Barclays agreed to forfeit
$298 million to the United States and to New York, and the U.S. government
agreed to defer criminal prosecution for 24 months "in light of Barclays'
remedial actions to date, its willingness to cooperate with the United
States, and its agreement to settle any and all civil and criminal claims
held by the United States."

Barclays, one of the largest banks in the world with $2 trillion in assets
as of Dec. 31, voluntarily disclosed to OFAC four transactions that
violated sanctions in May 2006, and cut off dealing with sanctioned banks
that November before launching an internal review with U.S. investigators
of transactions starting in 2000 and ending July 31, 2007.

Prosecutors said Barclays officials outside the United States caused its
New York branch to process payments that otherwise should have been
rejected, blocked or held for investigation under OFAC rules, and
prevented the branch from filing required Bank Secrecy Act and OFAC
reports.

U.S. officials cited transactions managed through the Society for
Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, or SWIFT, system.

The bank's New York officials began warning of potential misuse of payment
message information as early as October 2001, telling British headquarters
of an example of "how foreign banks circumvent the OFAC regulations" after
a Sudanese payment was stopped.

However, Barclays "continued disguising sanctioned payments and routing
them through its New York Branch until early- to mid-2006," prosecutors
charged, when senior management learned of the four suspect.

____________________________________

August 17, Toronto Sun
Mike Tyson eyeing Burma trip

Mike Tyson has vowed to make his kids proud of him now he's turned his
life around - he's eyeing a mercy mission to Burma.

The former boxing champion, who shot to fame in 1986 when he became the
youngest ever winner of the World Boxing Council (WBC) heavyweight title
at the age of 20, recently vowed to devote his life to caring for others
after a string of personal controversies.

His allegedly abusive marriage to actress Robin Givens in the late 1980s
began to overshadow his sporting achievements and in 1992, Tyson was
convicted of raping Desiree Washington, for which he served three years in
prison.

Tyson later turned to drugs, but now retired and clean, the sports star
admits he regrets the first 44 years - branding them a "f**king waste".

He's now determined to help others less fortunate than him and he's
planning a trip to Burma, south-east Asia to aid impoverished communities.

Tyson tells Sports Illustrated magazine, "I want to count for something.
Not in the name of God or any religion but in the name of self-dignity.

"I feel I'm a clown, I'm a joke. I just want to do nice things so my kids
can respect me. I want to live in a hut in Burma."

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

August 17, Huffington Post (US)
Thailand sets a poor example to Burma – Robert Amsterdam

The announcement by Burma's notoriously brutal military junta to hold
elections this November left many observers scratching their heads: why
even bother going through the motions? No one is fooled by this sham,
least of all the supporters of political prisoner Aung San Suu Kyi, whose
house arrest order is conspicuously set to conclude just days after the
proposed election date. The junta has no intention of holding a real
election, notes columnist Jonathan Manthorpe, "so they have constructed a
charade aimed at pleasing the gullible without putting their power at
risk."

However, judging by the Obama administration's silent tolerance of
Thailand's violent military-backed regime, you can't blame the Burmese
generals for thinking that these are the new rules of the game. The
"gullible" in Washington are duly earning their title.

Only a decade ago, Thailand was the sole democracy in the region,
surpassing every one of its closest neighbors on measures of civil and
political rights, religious tolerance, and respect for minority rights. In
the intervening time, while most countries in the region have made some
incremental progress on economic openness, political freedoms, and
adherence to the rule of law, Thailand has spent the better part of the
last several years moving in the opposite direction.

Long a staunch US ally and once a reliable partner in the region, under
the nose of President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
Thailand has morphed into a threat to regional peace and serial human
rights abuser. In many respects, Thailand is now more comparable to Burma
than it is to a successful emerging democracy like Indonesia.

Since coming to power in December 2008, after a court decision that
overturned the result of an election held a year earlier, Prime Minister
Abhisit Vejjajiva's Democrat Party-led government -- in concert with its
main backers among the country's top generals, royal advisors, and
exclusionary elite -- has launched an all-out assault on the basic
democratic rights of poorer majority.

There is quite an established record of brutality overlooked by
Washington. In late 2008, just weeks after Abhisit became Prime Minister,
the international media uncovered a story of gruesome human rights abuses
committed by the Thai authorities against Rohingya refugees. After days of
mistreatment, the Thai military towed the refugees out to the high seas,
leaving them to die of hunger and thirst on barges with no engines or
navigational equipment. It was estimated that as many as five hundred of
them had died as a result of the Royal Thai Army's actions. Instead of
investigating the affair, the Prime Minister rushed to dismiss the
well-documented allegations.

In terms of freedom of expression, Thailand is moving closer to the
Burmese model every day. The government has censored virtually every
source of alternative information, including the opposition's TV station,
dozens of community radios, and as many as 50,000 websites that were
blocked or shut down by the authorities. There's also been an increase in
the abuse of repressive legislation such as Thailand's draconian
lèse majesté laws and the Computer Crimes Act. The year 2009
saw a record number of prosecutions for crimes of conscience ― the
courts are reported to have accepted charges of lèse majesté
for 164 cases ― as well as the conviction of activists such as
Darunee Charnchoensilpakul ("Da Torpedo"), who was sentenced on August 28
to eighteen years in prison for three charges of lèse majesté (one per
offending comment) stemming from a speech she gave in July 2008.

International NGOs are beginning to take notice of the repression of free
speech, from the Committee to Protect Journalists to Reporters Without
Borders. Owing to the ongoing campaign of persecution and harassment of
political opponents, in January 2010 Human Rights Watch lamented the
"serious backsliding" observed in Thailand's human rights record over the
course of Abhisit's tenure in office. By all accounts, the hounding of
political opponents is only intensifying. Juti Krai-rirk, the new Minister
of Information and Communication Technology, has recently promised the
continuation of the crackdown, on the grounds that "the government has
given too much freedom for its citizens."

Of an altogether more serious nature is the campaign of violence,
extra-judicial executions, and illegal detentions that the Abhisit
administration has unleashed against its opponents, chiefly among them the
"Red Shirts" of the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD)
-- an organization that sprung up in opposition against the 2006 coup. The
government's campaign against the opposition has resulted in the death of
almost a hundred unarmed protesters and the injury of approximately two
thousand people.

The first major episode of repression took place in April 2009, when the
Abhisit administration carried out a violent dispersal of Red Shirt
demonstrations in Bangkok. The Red Shirts organized still more massive
demonstrations beginning on March 14, 2010. Following a botched crackdown
of April 10, which left twenty-seven people dead, the Red Shirts were
finally dispersed on May 19, after a weeklong crackdown that saw the
military fire thousands of live rounds on unarmed protesters, innocent
by-standers, emergency medical workers, and journalists. Despite repeated
accusations of "terrorism" leveled at the UDD, no security forces died
during the operations in May, while none of the fifty-five additional
people gunned down by the authorities proved to have been carrying
weapons. As Reporters Without Borders (RSF) put it, the Thai government
gave the army a "license to kill" the demonstrators, which the security
forces used to "run roughshod over international law and Thai legislation
protecting civilians."

The military is once again in control of the country. Unlike in the
aftermath of the 2006 coup, it governs under the cover of law - more
specifically, thanks to the abuse of repressive legislation allowing the
new junta to place itself beyond any form of accountability. The current
government's abuse of emergency powers in fact marks the wholesale
subversion of the rule of law absent the formal declaration of a coup. The
government's pretense of legality notwithstanding, one should make no
mistake about it: the imposition and subsequent indefinite extension of
the Emergency Decree marks the staging of a silent (if unacceptably
violent) coup on the part of the Abhisit administration and its military
backers.

Earlier in the year, the highly reputable international organization
Freedom House reported that Thailand could not be classified as an
"electoral democracy" (much less a "liberal democracy") owing to the
constant interference of the military in the political process as well as
the Abhisit's insistence on governing the country in the absence of an
electoral mandate. Freedom House ranked Thailand as "partly free,"
assigning scores on Political Rights and Civil Liberties identical to
Venezuela's (and worse than troubled countries in South and Southeast Asia
such as Bangladesh, Nepal, the Philippines, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka).
While Freedom House's rating underscores the marked deterioration of
Thailand's democracy (Thailand was considered a "Free" country as late as
2005), the 2010 figures do not reflect the giant leap into
authoritarianism Thailand has made over the last six months, which have
brought Thailand more in line with countries like Russia and Iran.

It is a sad irony that at the same time the Burmese junta agreed to hold
an election (albeit one that is likely to be deeply flawed) the Thai junta
would consider murdering a hundred people and violating its international
obligations to be preferable to holding an election of its own. Moreover,
whereas the prospect of regional volatility raised by the actions of the
PAD and Democrat Party has greatly alarmed Thailand's major trading
partners, the country's authoritarian reversal is guaranteed to damage the
international community's attempt to promote democracy in the region.

Thus far, President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
have failed to utter a single word about the destruction of democracy in
Thailand, while the US House of Representatives passed a bland resolution
praising the government's fraudulent "reconciliation" plan. Having failed
to do anything to stop Thailand's transformation into a rogue regime, it
is time that the US government re-assess its stance and use its leverage
to persuade the authorities in Bangkok to end emergency rule, end the
systematic repression of opposition voices, and eventually hold elections.
While history has shown repeatedly just how important Southeast Asia is to
the United States' national interest, letting the Thai regime get away
with murder further threatens to compromise regional peace and stability.
What is more, a little pressure might go a long way towards promoting
democratic values in a country where democracy is now in a state of
complete disrepair.

Robert Amsterdam is an international lawyer retained by the former Prime
Minister of Thailand Thaksin Shinawatra to advocate on behalf of the
United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD)

____________________________________

August 17, Irrawaddy
Constitutional truth or trick? – Htet Aung

Burma's new constitution has again become a center of debate among foreign
experts, diplomats and social workers working with their different
missions, searching for a solution to the current political conflict
between democracy and military authoritarianism.

The most recent driving factor that awoke their interest is a numerical
calculation of the dynamic of the post-election bicameral parliament
reached by a locally-grown so-called think tank, EGRESS, based in Rangoon.

According to this calculation, if the people correctly elect 333
candidates who will truly represent the people's desires and interests,
the new legislative body will be capable of passing new laws for the
benefit of the people, regardless of the military's 25 percent share of
seats in parliament.

A deeper analysis of the calculation discloses two key messages: The new
constitution and the legislative body emerging under it will have a
relatively functioning democratic space and the upcoming election will
mark a change for the country.

So let’s do the math! The 333 parliamentarians represent the 51 percent of
the highest legislative body, the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (Union Assembly),
which is composed of the 664 seats: a combination of the 440-seat Pyithu
Hluttaw (People's Assembly) and 224-seat Amyotha Hluttaw (Nationalities
Assembly).

Obviously, the EGRESS speculation was based on Article 86 (a) of the
constitution which reads: “A matter that shall be resolved in the
Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, save as otherwise provided by the Constitution, shall
be determined by a majority of votes of the representatives of the
Pyidaungsu Hluttaw who are present and voting.” The Pyithu Hluttaw will
practice the same principle, according to Article 129 (a).

It looks good—and is a great lure for those pro-junta advocates who are
often thought to be experts on Burma and who tour the globe trying to
convince governments that Burma's new constitution is not as bad as they
thought.

Whether this proposal is a truth or a trick is best tested by looking at
past and present reality.

In an interview with the media not long after the constitutional
referendum in 2008, a foreign diplomat said that while the junta currently
held 100 percent of the power after the election it would command 25
percent and relinquish the remaining 75 percent. Then he asked: “Isn’t it
better?”

The reality, however, is that the junta has formed a political party that
enables the generals to retain the 75 percent and guarantees them
continuing power. The so-called Burma experts are unaware that they have
fallen into the trap of the junta’s psycho-warfare operations, unwittingly
carrying out the generals’ interests.

Meanwhile, the “333” numerical speculation has come at a time when the
election is around the corner and frustration is increasing among the
political parties at the junta's total unfairness in the pre-election
process.

Based on evidence provided by the 2008 constitution, the dynamic of the
new bicameral parliament is largely uncertain. Even if the members of the
parliaments who claim to be pure democrats, contrary to the junta-backed
ones, won 333 seats in the bicameral parliament, their authority is
strictly limited by the new executive body led by the president.

This evidence can be found in the area of the country's annual budget
bill, a very sensitive area where the stability and development of the
country can be decided by the rights and responsibilities shared by the
legislative and executive bodies.

The constitution explicitly stipulates that the president will submit the
country's “Union Budget Bill” to the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw and that members
of parliament have no right to “refuse or curtail” certain parts of the
budget.

Article 103 (a) reads: “The President or the person assigned by him, on
behalf of the Union Government, shall submit the Union Budget Bill to the
Pyidaungsu Hluttaw.”

However, Article 103 (b) severely restricts the dynamic and power of the
parliament with four specific conditions and lists areas of  the Union
Budget Bill that “shall be discussed at the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, but not
refused or curtailed.”

The areas are: First, expenditures of the whole executive body, including
the Defense Ministry; Second, debts for which the Union is liable and
expenses relating to the debts, and other expenses relating to the loans
taken out by the Union; Third, expenditures required to satisfy a
judgment, order, decree of any Court or Tribunal; and Fourth, other
expenditures which are to be charged by any existing law or any
international treaty.

The extent of those areas covers almost the entire budget and makes clear
that the new bicameral parliament will have no power to influence it.

At this point, the question is: How can the 333 MPs who are devoted to
serve the people work for the best interests of the people?

It can be argued that the 333 MPs can control the presidency election and
elect a president who is loyal to them. But there is no electoral law yet
for electing a new president of Burma and nobody knows if president is to
be elected by a simple majority vote or another voting system.

The formulation of a presidency electoral law will doubtless be in the
hands of the junta's Union Election Commission and the presidency voting
system will depend on the results of the parliamentary election.

Htet Aung is chief reporter of the election desk at The Irrawaddy.

____________________________________
PRESS RELEASE

August 17, Burma Campaign UK
Barclays must disclose business dealings with Burma

Burma Campaign UK today called on Barclays to disclose in full all
financial payments made involving Burma.

Barclays Bank has agreed to pay a $298m (£190m) fine for breaking US
sanctions against several dictatorships. The bank had been charged with
breaking the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and the Trading
with the Enemy Act between 1995 and 2006. The countries involved were
Burma, Cuba, Iran, Libya, and Sudan.

“Barclays must come clean and reveal which banks in Burma it was doing
business with, where the money came from, and where it went to,” said Mark
Farmaner, Director of Burma Campaign UK. “This is a very serious issue.
Barclays have a lot of questions to answer. Burma’s generals, and their
business cronies, are looting the country of wealth, hiding it in foreign
bank accounts. Have Barclays helped them do this? We also need to know how
the money was used. Were these financial transfers used for buying arms?
Have Barclays helped arm a dictatorship which uses rape, torture and slave
labour, and stands accused of committing war crimes and crimes against
humanity?”

Burma Campaign UK is also concerned that the US government is not properly
monitoring and implementing sanctions.

“Some people are arguing that we should be taking a softer line with
Burma’s generals because sanctions have been tried and have failed,” said
Mark Farmaner. “The truth is there are very few effective sanctions
against the dictatorship in Burma, and now we find that even those few are
not properly implemented.”

Burma Campaign UK is also writing to the British government asking them to
investigate whether Barclays is in breach of Europe Union sanctions on
Burma. The European Union has some limited financial sanctions, but none
which are as strong as those imposed by the USA.

For more information contact Mark Farmaner on 07941239640.