BurmaNet News, November 12, 2010

[Editor]

November 12, 2010 Issue #4083

INSIDE BURMA
New York Times: Release of Myanmar opposition leader anticipated
CNN: The daughter of a hero, Suu Kyi became Myanmar's symbol of hope
BBC: Who are Burma's political prisoners?
Sydney Morning Herald: Australian film crew deported from Burma

ON THE BORDER
AFP: UN refugee agency signals more fighting in Myanmar

DRUGS
Sydney Morning Herald: Heroin traffickers elected in Burma

REGIONAL
AFP: Freeing Suu Kyi would 'ease pressure' on Myanmar: Thai PM

OPINION / OTHER
Hindustan Times: In a glass palace – Sagari Chhabra
AFP: Myanmar's Suu Kyi to face new landscape
Irrawaddy: Issues Suu Kyi should deal with – Editorial
Ottawa Citizen (Canada): Burma boils – Editorial

INTERVIEW
DVB: Depayin and the driver – Joseph Allchin with Kyaw Soe Lin

PRESS RELEASE
OHCHR: UN experts urge Myanmar to release Aung San Suu Kyi and other
prisoners of conscience



____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

November 12, New York Times
Release of Myanmar opposition leader anticipated – Seth Mydans

Bangkok — Supporters of the pro-democracy leader in Myanmar, Daw Aung San
Suu Kyi, gathered near her home on Friday as unconfirmed reports
circulated that she would be released soon from house arrest.

Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, has been
held for 15 of the last 21 years. Her latest term of detention was due to
expire Saturday, a date set in August by the leader of the military junta,
Senior General Than Shwe.

News agencies quoted members of her party as saying they had heard that
her release was imminent, and the word spread quickly through Internet
reports.

“My sources tell me that the release order has been signed,” said Tin Oo,
vice chairman of Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi’s party, The Associated Press
reported. “I hope she will be released,” he added, but did not say when he
thought she would be freed or when the order had been signed.

The Thailand-based exile magazine, The Irrawaddy, which has close contacts
with people in Myanmar, reported that several riot police trucks had been
positioned near her home in downtown Yangon. Later in the afternoon, The
Irrawaddy reported, party leaders told supporters to return home and to
come back Saturday morning.

The release of Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi, 65, had been a central demand of
Western nations as they sought to pressure the ruling junta on questions
of human rights and political freedom.

Reports that the release was imminent came five days after a parliamentary
election that cemented military rule behind a civilian government
structure and was intended, at least in part, to gain international
legitimacy.

Western diplomats said their reaction would be based on the degree of
freedom or restriction placed by the junta on her activities.

Her release by itself was not likely to change the policies of Myanmar’s
critics like the United States. And it could lead to further condemnation
from abroad if authorities try constrain her activities.

Her lawyer, U Nyan Win, told reporters in Yangon that she would not accept
restrictions on her freedom and that she would “resume active politics and
make organizing tours around the country.”

He said she had called for in investigation of irregularities in the
election, which was won by the military-backed party but has been
criticized as fraudulent by opposition parties.

This activist role could lead to a confrontation like those she faced
after her two previous releases, in 1995 and in 2002, when the ruling
generals found her freedom too challenging and returned her to house
arrest.

Her current term of house arrest was extended in August after an American
adventurer, John Yettaw, swam across a lake uninvited to her home, leading
to charges against her that she had violated the terms of her detention.

Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy, won the
country’s last election, in 1990, by a landslide but the generals who
controlled the country annulled the result and clung to power.

It was not clear what role she would now play or what options would be
available to her even if her release does not carry restrictive
conditions.

____________________________________

November 12, CNN
The daughter of a hero, Suu Kyi became Myanmar's symbol of hope

She is small but only in physical stature. Aung San Suu Kyi is the very
embodiment of Myanmar's long struggle for democracy.

The 65-year-old human rights activist has defied Myanmar's authoritarian
military junta with her quiet demeanor and grace. For that she has endured
house arrest for most of the past two decades and, perhaps, has become the
world's most recognizable political prisoner.

She has lived quietly by herself at her disintegrating Inya Lake villa in
Yangon (the former capital, also known as Rangoon), accompanied solely by
two maids.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate has had little outside human contact except
for visits from her doctor. Sometimes, though, she has been able to speak
over the wall of her compound to her supporters, never once giving up her
crusade to break down the tyranny of dictatorship in her beloved homeland
of Burma, the alternate name for Myanmar.

Known as the "lady" in Myanmar, Suu Kyi has been compared to former South
African President Nelson Mandela, who spent a chunk of his life in jail
for fighting apartheid.

In an interview with CNN, Suu Kyi, in fact, likened Myanmar's plight to
South Africa's former brutal race-based system.

"It's a form of apartheid," she said. "In Africa, it was apartheid based
on color. Here, it is apartheid based on ideas. It is as though those who
want democracy are somehow of an alien inferior breed and this is not so."

The daughter of Gen. Aung San, a hero of Burmese independence, Suu Kyi
spent much of her early life abroad, going to school in India and at
Oxford University in England.

She never sought political office. Rather, leadership was bestowed upon
her when she returned home in 1988 after her mother suffered a stroke.

During her visit, a student uprising erupted and spotlighted her as a
symbol of freedom. When Suu Kyi's mother died the next year, Suu Kyi vowed
that just as her parents had served the people of Burma, so, too, would
she.

In her first public speech, she stood before a crowd of several hundred
thousand people with her husband, Michael Aris, and her two sons and
called for a democratic government.

"The present crisis is the concern of the entire nation," she said. "I
could not, as my father's daughter, remain indifferent to all that was
going on. This national crisis could, in fact, be called the second
struggle for independence."

She won over the Burmese people.

The following year, the military regime threw her in jail. But even with
Suu Kyi sitting behind bars, her National League for Democracy won the
1990 elections by a landslide, gaining 82 percent of the seats in
parliament.

The regime ignored the results of the vote and Senior Gen. Than Shwe
continued to impose numerous terms of house arrest on her.

Suu Kyi, meanwhile, became the recipient of several human rights prizes
and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.

Over the years, Suu Kyi has repeatedly challenged the junta and
discouraged foreign investment in Myanmar.

In one incident in 1998, soldiers prevented her from leaving Yangon. But
Suu Kyi refused to turn back and was detained in her minivan for almost
two weeks. The ordeal left her severely dehydrated, but was typical of her
almost stubborn determination.

"She is the symbol of the hope for the people of Burma. If she is out
today the whole country will rise up, will follow her," said Khin Omar of
the Network for Democracy and Development.

Over the years, Suu Kyi has made it clear that she remains devoted to
bringing democracy to Myanmar. She has spoken of her separation from her
loved ones as the sacrifice she chose to make for the freedom of her
country.

She has not seen her sons since 2000. The year before, her dying husband
petitioned the Myanmar authorities to allow him to visit his wife. He had
last seen her in 1995. His request was rejected.

Instead, the junta encouraged Suu Kyi to join her family abroad. But she
said she knew that if she left, she would never be allowed to return. Aris
died of prostate cancer in March 1999.

Even before they were married, Suu Kyi had penned a letter to Aris
professing her love of country. "I only ask one thing," she wrote, "that
should my people need me, you would help me to do my duty by them."

Suu Kyi tried to break the monotony of her life by playing her piano,
another passion in her life, according to the independent Irrawaddy
magazine. But the piano has been broken for years and she has taken up
painting to fill the void, the magazine reported. One day, maybe, people
will see her canvases.

Suu Kyi has also asked her lawyers to bring her books in English and
French. Last year, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz was
allowed to present her with his book "Globalization and Its Discontent."

Again in 2007, people defiantly took to the streets to protest rising fuel
costs. The demonstrations were seen as a direct challenge to the authority
of the government.

The regime answered with a brutal crackdown. Suu Kyi's detention was
extended again and again. She appeared gaunt -- and unhappy.

Even when Cyclone Nargis devastated Myanmar in May 2008, Suu Kyi was not
allowed to leave her house, though trees were crashing down all around
her.

The following year, Myanmar was again propelled into the headlines by a
bizarre incident involving an American, John Yettaw, who improvised
flippers to swim Inya Lake to Suu Kyi's compound. He said he had received
a message from God to do so. Yettaw was arrested, and Suu Kyi was put on
trial, charged with harboring Yettaw, and was punished with another 18
months of house arrest.

During the trial, she was able to meet with diplomats. High on her agenda
was the election that was held this week. She and her party boycotted the
vote, certain that it would be a sham.

"In Burma, the regime can control people but they cannot control her, they
cannot shut her mouth," said analyst Win Min. "They can release other
political prisoners but they are worried that if they release her she will
speak out."

The junta has organized national conventions to debate their version of a
new democratic Myanmar. The road map makes no mention of Suu Kyi.

Some believe that Suu Kyi's stubborn defiance has become an obstacle to
progress in Myanmar. But her followers remain ardent in their admiration.

She has clung to her dream of democracy, peace and freedom for Myanmar's
50 million impoverished people, they say.

Those simple ideals have greatly complicated one woman's life.

____________________________________

November 12, BBC News
Who are Burma's political prisoners?

As speculation continues that Burma's military rulers may be ready to free
pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the BBC looks at the country's more
than 2,200 political prisoners.

They are held in the country's 43 prisons and an unknown number of labour
camps, many serving sentences of several decades after trials with no or
very limited access to legal representation.

Many of those who have been released say they were tortured in jail.

Prisoners include veteran activists from the 88 Generation student
movement and leaders of the main pro-democracy party, the National League
for Democracy.

Monks who led anti-government protests in 2007 have also been jailed, as
well as journalists who covered the demonstrations.

Human rights groups say that since the 2007 protests, the number of
political prisoners has doubled.

88 Generation: Kyaw Min Yu (Ko Jimmy) and Nilar Thein

As veteran members of Burma's 88 Generation Students, Nilar Thein and Kyaw
Min Yu, known as Ko Jimmy, are both familiar with their country's penal
system. Ko Jimmy served 16 years in prison for his involvement in the
pro-democracy movement, while Nilar Thein served eight years for taking
part in student demonstrations.

After being released they got married and in 2007 had a daughter. But in
August 2007 Ko Jimmy was arrested for taking part in the street protests
triggered by a government-ordered fuel price rise. Nilar Thein went into
hiding but was later caught.

On 11 November she and her husband were jailed for 65 years each. The
charges were four counts of illegally using electronic media (15 years
each) plus five years for forming an illegal organisation.

National League for Democracy

There are at least 413 members of the National League for Democracy behind
bars, according to a November 2010 report by the Assistance Association
for Political Prisoners (Burma). The NLD won elections in 1990 but was
never allowed to take power.

NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi has spent 15 of the last 21 years in some form
of detention. Her close aide and fellow NLD founder Win Tin was released
in 2008 after serving 19 years in prison for agitating against the junta
and distributing political materials.

The NLD's deputy leader, Tin Oo, was jailed for three years in the early
1990s and then again put under house arrest in 2003 after a
government-backed mob attacked a convoy he and Aung San Suu Kyi were
travelling in. He was freed in February 2010.

Monk-led protests in 2007: U Gambira

U Gambira is one of the leaders of the All-Burma Monks' Alliance, which
led anti-government protests in August 2007.

On 4 November, weeks after the protests were crushed, he accused the junta
of bringing a country choking "on the foul air of tyranny" to the brink of
collapse in a Washington Post editorial.

"The regime's use of mass arrests, murder, torture and imprisonment has
failed to extinguish our desire for the freedom that was stolen from us so
many years ago," he wrote.

The 31-year-old was arrested the day the piece was published and, less
than three weeks later, jailed for 68 years including 12 of hard labour.

Ethnic groups: U Khun Tun Oo

U Khun Tun Oo is the most senior political representative of the Shan, the
largest of Burma's ethnic minorities. He is also head of the Shan
Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD), which won the second-highest
number of votes in the 1990 elections after the NLD.

In 2005 he was sentenced to 93 years in prison. A year earlier the SNLD
had boycotted a junta-sponsored national convention on a new constitution.
The party complained about the restrictive process and the regime's stance
on human rights.

U Khun Tun Oo was arrested in February 2005 after a private meeting of
senior political representatives to discuss the junta's plans for a
political transition to "democracy". He was convicted on several counts
including treason and defamation.

He is being held in Puta-O prison in Kachin State. Conditions are said to
be extremely harsh and Mr Oo is reportedly in poor health and receiving
inadequate medical assistance.

Cyclone Nargis: Zarganar

Zarganar, whose name translates as "tweezers", is one of Burma's most
famous satirists and actors, and a vocal critic of the military
government. He has in recent years become a high-profile activist and
relief worker in the country. In September 2006, he was banned from
performing or taking part in any entertainment-related work.

In 2008 he was arrested along with more than 20 prominent activists and
journalists for talking to foreign media about the ruling generals'
response to the humanitarian relief effort following Cyclone Nargis.

The storm hit Burma's southern Irrawaddy delta in May 2008, claiming at
least 140,000 lives and affecting 2.4 million others. Ignoring protests
from foreign governments and aid agencies, the junta refused widespread
access to the area for weeks.

Zarganar was sentenced to 59 years in prison for "public order offences".
This was later reduced to 35 years.

Journalist: Hla Hla Win

Hla Hla Win worked for the Burmese exile broadcaster, the Democratic Voice
of Burma.

Friends said she joined the NLD's youth wing after the 2007 monk-led
protests and believed only a dialogue between the NLD and the military
government could bring about a genuine solution for Burma. She was later
said to have left the party but remained committed to her political
beliefs.

The 25-year-old video journalist was detained in September 2009 after
conducting interviews with Buddhist monks in a monastery.

Initially she was sentenced to seven years for using an unregistered
motorbike. But was later handed down a further 20-year sentence for
uploading data to the internet that was "damaging to the security of the
military regime".

Media reports say she was not represented by a lawyer. Ms Win began a
hunger strike soon after and was hospitalized
____________________________________

November 12, The Sydney Morning Herald
Australian film crew deported from Burma

Australian authorities have raised concerns with Burma about the
deportation of two Australian journalists from the country.

The Australian film crew were arrested and taken to a Burma airport by
local authorities to be deported on Thursday night, despite the fact they
held long-stay visas.

The crew was working on a documentary about independent media in
South-East Asia, including the Myanmar Times newspaper and its Australian
editor Ross Dunkley.
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A Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) spokesman said consular
officials in Rangoon met the pair before they left and confirmed their
well-being.

But the department says it holds concerns about the pair's deportation.

"We have raised the matter at a senior level in Rangoon, stressing that,
in keeping with the provisions of the Vienna Conventions, we expect the
Burmese authorities to advise the Australian Embassy immediately if an
Australian citizen is detained by them," the spokesman said.

Reporting from Burma is notoriously difficult for journalists and many
have been arrested and deported during the recent election period.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

November 12, Agence France Presse
UN refugee agency signals more fighting in Myanmar

Geneva — The UN refugee agency said on Friday that most of the 15,000
people who fled from Myanmar earlier this week have returned from Thailand
despite renewed post-election fighting near the border.

A spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Adrian Edwards said
fighting reportedly erupted again overnight after the Thai army cleared
their return, with the potential for more clashes around the Myanmar
villages of Maekata and Halokani.

"As of today most of the 15,000 Myanmar refugees who fled into Thailand
earlier this week have returned across the border," Edwards told
journalists.

Sites in northern Thailand's Tak province emptied by Wednesday while all
3,000 refugees further south in Sanghklaburi had disappeared by early
Friday, he added.

"In the light of the confused situation and the risks to safety, UNHCR is
advocating with the Royal Thai government that refugees be given further
time before being encouraged to return home," Edwards said.

UN human rights experts on Friday expressed concern about the impact of
the earlier fighting and reiterated calls for the release of "over 2,200
prisoners of conscience" including jailed opposition leader Daw Aung San
Suu Kyi.

"The elections were billed as one of the final elements of the so-called
seven-step roadmap to democracy," the four experts said in a joint
statement.

"However, the renewed clashes and resulting humanitarian crisis as
civilians fled to a neighbouring State highlight the many unresolved
challenges that Myanmar faces," they added in a statement.

"True democratic transition will require genuine dialogue with all
stakeholders including Aung San Suu Kyi, and the various ethnic minorities
that were excluded from the electoral process."

The statement was made by the Special Rapporteurs on human rights in
Myanmar, Tomas Ojea Quintana, on the right to freedom of opinion, Frank La
Rue, on human rights defenders, Margaret Sekaggyawas, and the chairman of
the working group on arbitrary detention, El-Hadji Malick Sow.

____________________________________
DRUGS

November 12, The Sydney Morning Herald
Heroin traffickers elected in Burma – Craig Skehan

Mae Sot, Thailand: Six successful candidates backed by the junta in
Burma's controversial elections last weekend were heavily involved in drug
trafficking, a crime expert says.

Of the six, Liu Guoxi, 75, had the most senior role: managing drug profits
with the knowledge of the military junta, said Bertil Lintner, an expert
on transnational crime in south-east Asia.

''He was running heroin for years and years for the Kokang,'' said Mr
Lintner, the author of Brothers: The Criminal Underworld of Asia. ''Liu
was a sort of accountant - it was his job to look after funds from the
drug business.''
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The Kokang are a largely ethnic Chinese group in northern Burma. Last year
the Burmese government attacked Kokang leaders, accusing them of drug
running. Peng Jiasheng, the Kokang leader at the time, fled across the
border into southern China, seeking refugee status.

''Basically, the Burmese government - while [Peng] supported them - didn't
have any problem with him running heroin,'' Mr Lintner said. ''But when he
refused to join a proposed Border Guard Force to incorporate various
ethnic militias, the Burmese government turned against him.

''It was only then that they called him a drug trafficker.''

After last Sunday's elections, the issue of the Border Guard Force -
opposed by ethnic minority nationalists - has become a highly charged
factor in sparking armed clashes along the Thai border with ethnic Karen
forces.

This comes as Thai law enforcement agencies warn of an increasing flow of
methamphetamines from ethnic armies in Burma seeking to raise money to buy
weapons.

Mr Lintner said yesterday that while opium is no longer grown around
Kokang, heroin production continues with poppies acquired elsewhere.

Liu Guoxi was described in the 1990s, in an article in the respected
magazine Far Eastern Economic Review, as a drug kingpin. Last year he was
made the deputy to Bai Xuoqian, who became Kokang leader after Peng
Jiasheng was overthrown.

Security experts on the border said people with drug connections had been
elected to some of the 14 regional parliaments, as well as to the national
parliament.

The ethnic nationalist Shan Herald website named six people involved in
drugs who were elected to the Shan State North legislature, in an area
notorious for the drug trade.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

November 12, Agence France Presse
Freeing Suu Kyi would 'ease pressure' on Myanmar: Thai PM

Bangkok – Freeing democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi "would ease pressure" on
Myanmar's junta, Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said Friday,
following widespread condemnation of the army-ruled country's election.

Suu Kyi, who has spent the majority of the last two decades under house
arrest in Yangon, is "certain" to be freed, an unnamed Myanmar government
official said. Her current period of detention expires on Saturday.

"The international community wants to see her released," Abhisit told
reporters in the Thai capital. "If she is freed it will ease pressure (on
the junta)."

Thailand belongs to the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN), whose members were among the few countries in the world to praise
Myanmar's first election in 20 years.

Western governments have denounced the poll as anything but free and fair.

The Thai premier said he had not received any confirmation from the
Myanmar authorities on Suu Kyi's impending release.

"We have to wait for November 13," he said. "If there is nothing new, her
term will be completed."

If she is freed, observers say the move could be seen as an effort by the
regime to deflect criticism of the November 7 election, widely decried as
a sham aimed at putting a civilian mask on military power.

Suu Kyi's party boycotted the vote and was disbanded as a result.

Partial election results show the main army-backed party has already taken
a huge lead.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

November 12, Hindustan Times
In a glass palace – Sagari Chhabra

No one expected the Myanmar military junta's elections to be fair. But how
flawed should things be allowed to get? The military-supported USDP (Union
Solidarity and Development Party) has cornered 80% seats (they are still
counting as we go to press), but then who had predicted 'advance voting'
with government employees instructed to vote in front of officials,
villagers in the presence of village heads and soldiers before their
commanders?

The National League of Democracy (NLD), headed by Aung San Suu Kyi, which
won over 80% seats in the last elections, did not even contest. The papers
for Suu Kyi's release from house arrest have been signed as her
incarceration ends today. She has been detained for 15 of the past 21
years.

In fact, along with nine other parties, including the Shan Nationalities
League of Democracy, the NLD has been de-registered and is now outlawed in
Myanmar. The new constitution — nicknamed the Nergis Constitution as it
came into effect when the country was ravaged by a devastating cyclone —
reserves a fourth of the seats in the two houses for the military along
with key ministries that will also be headed by the military. The
Commander-in-Chief can assume full sovereign power by declaring an
emergency.

Myanmar is also plagued by a lack of unity among 135 nationalities
including eight major ones — namely Araken, Chin, Kachin, Karen, Karenni,
Mon, Shan, and the Burmese. Neither the years of parliamentary democracy,
between 1948 and 1962, nor the subsequent years have seen any  resolution
of the civil strife in Myanmar. The NLD and some ethnic allies created a
new avenue on October 24, as they have agreed to work towards the second
Pinglong Conference, which will be a new political platform. This is a
progressive move since the Committee Representing Peoples' Parliament
(CRPP), which was formed on September 16, 1998, to work on behalf of the
1990 parliament, becomes irrelevant after the 2010 election charade.

In the context of so much power being institutionalised in the world's
longest-running, most tyrannical regime, with the backing of China and a
studied silence from the country's democratic neighbour, what is the
future of Aung San Suu Kyi and the other 2,000 political prisoners? Since
the military has consolidated itself in more palatable terms, some would
say that Aung San Suu Kyi, for whose freedom the United Nations General
Assemby has been passing a resolution every single year, should now be
allowed to participate in politics.

Perhaps she has been rendered unnecessary in the new scheme of things. A
carefully-plotted roadmap to squash dissenters, unveiling an iniquitous
constitution and having a full-scale drama of an election have all gone
off, according to General Than Swe's meticulous plans. It would also lend
a more democratic image to the electoral farce, which has propelled
several thousand refugees to flee to neighbouring Thailand. As I travelled
across Myanmar earlier, I saw how even the Burmese people have to register
at the nearest police station by 8 pm if they are to have an overnight
guest and that the only construction activity I witnessed was the building
of a new prison on the road to Maymyo. An entire generation has grown up
in a glass palace prison.

In April 1989, Aung San Suu Kyi went with a group of her party activists
to the Irrawaddy Delta. They arrived by boat in the town of Danubyu. As
they walked towards the local NLD office, they found their way blocked by
soldiers who pointed automatic guns towards them. Suu Kyi urged her people
to keep moving even as the captain in-charge threatened to shoot. Just
then a senior officer rushed and ordered his men to step aside. Suu Kyi
had followed in the footsteps of Mahatma Gandhi and adopted his policy of
satyagraha in Myanmar. She had hoped that this would spread across the
country and the second struggle for freedom in Myanmar will be played out
on similar lines. It did not happen. She was placed under house arrest on
July 20, 1989.

As some one who spent several months researching in Myanmar, living down
the road from Suu Kyi's house in the hope of meeting her, her release was
something I, along with several across the world, prayed for. The frail
lady is feared by the military. The lady with flowers in her hair,
throttled in a bottleneck vase for the last 15 years, symbolises the
results and hopes of the last elections  that were never honoured. Her
release will upset the 'unjust peace' that is about to settle over
Myanmar.

It is, however, about time that the world that awarded Suu Kyi the Nobel
Peace Prize and India, which honoured her with the Jawaharlal Nehru Award
for International Understanding, presses for a greater role in Myanmar's
affairs for her. A democratic voice that represents the just aspirations
of its people cannot be suppressed anymore.

The military junta, now that it has doffed its blood-soaked uniforms, is
camouflaging itself in pleasant, sweet terms and has won the elections
hands down, could perhaps be pushed to do a nice, gentlemanly act — engage
with Suu Kyi. While the Myanmar court rejected her appeal for the reversal
of General Than Swe's order , the executive order rescinded it. It takes
credit for releasing her; for even generals like to appear virtuous. Suu
Kyi has not been able to see her own children for years. Her son, Kim, has
just been granted a visa to visit her. But don't forget that Suu Kyi was
not even allowed to visit her dying husband Michael Aris. The British High
Commissioner carried her farewell letter to him, in secret.

Meanwhile, the world continues to watch with bated breath for the one
preaches and practises ahimsa to take her rightful place in guiding the
destiny of Myanmar's long-suffering people.

Sagari Chhabra is a writer and film director. Her forthcoming book In
Search Of Freedom is based on her stay in Myanmar. The views expressed by
the author are personal. Barkha Dutt's fortnightly column Third Eye will
return on November 27.
____________________________________

November 12, Agence France Presse
Myanmar's Suu Kyi to face new landscape

Yangon – From web cafes to a skyline dotted with high-rise buildings, much
has changed since Aung San Suu Kyi began her most recent stretch of
detention -- including Myanmar's political landscape.

After seven straight years of confinement, deprived of access to a
telephone line or the Internet, one of the first things the 65-year-old
has said she plans to do is join Twitter to reach out to younger
generations.

Myanmar's most famous dissident will also have a new political reality to
deal with in the army-run country, which held its first election in 20
years on Sunday with Suu Kyi sidelined and silenced.

Her isolated existence has left her "out of touch", said Pavin
Chachavalpongpun, a research fellow at the Institute of South East Asia
Studies in Singapore.

"She cannot access the Internet and people who give her information all
have their own agendas. Sometimes they read the situation completely
wrongly," he said.

The big question is whether Suu Kyi can galvanise Myanmar's opposition,
deeply divided by her support for a boycott of Sunday's vote, in which the
military's political proxies have claimed a landslide win.

A group of former members of her National League for Democracy (NLD) which
broke away to run in Sunday's poll was accused by Suu Kyi's closest
associates of betraying the party.

Suu Kyi's NLD won a landslide victory in the previous poll in 1990 but the
junta never allowed her to take power and she has been detained from most
of the past two decades.

"If she wants to fight with the new government she has to make sure she
strengthens opposition parties first... recruits new and young politicians
to make sure there's someone who can carry out her message," said Pavin.

The fate of the country's many ethnic groups is another major issue and
observers say Suu Kyi, an ethnic Burman, is perceived by some as part of
the elite that have sidelined minority issues for decades.

For many though, the daughter of Myanmar's liberation hero General Aung
San remains a beacon of hope for a better future, drawing large crowds
when she was last freed in 2002.

While releasing her could deflect criticism of Sunday's poll, it may be
risky for the junta because few expect her to give up her long struggle to
bring democracy to what is one of the world's oldest dictatorships.

"She is not going to be a humanitarian queen. She is going to do politics.
She is as political as ever," said Maung Zarni, a Myanmar research fellow
at the London School of Economics.

In the past the regime has tried to put conditions on her freedom, such as
by barring her from leaving Yangon.

Some fear they will do the same again, setting the scene for possible
confrontation with the authorities that could land Suu Kyi back in
detention.

Thailand-based expert Aung Naing Oo said freeing her would show that the
generals "no longer fear her political potency" but the regime is still
likely to insist on severe restrictions.

"She is not a quiet type... there will be an unspoken demand from the
people for her to do something, perhaps about the election results," he
said.

Many in Myanmar still look to Suu Kyi to bring them the democracy after
almost five decades of autocratic rule.

"I think even the Gods are afraid of the junta. Someone will have to stop
this military government and I think only Suu Kyi can," said a 60-year-old
former gem miner in Yangon.

A 45-year-old businessman said Suu Kyi was the one person who could stand
up to the junta.

"The lady is courageous. Despite all attempts to silence her, she
continues to voice the hopes and aspirations of the people who want
democracy," he said.

____________________________________

November 12, Irrawaddy
Issues Suu Kyi should deal with – Editorial

Burma's democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi has spent 15 of the past 21
years in detention. Her latest period of house arrest, which began in May
2003, is due to end this weekend, and she is expected to re-engage in
politics after her release. The Irrawaddy has identified six areas where
her leadership could be instrumental in finding long-term solutions to
political and cultural issues.

•      The Junta: Suu Kyi has tried to seek a political dialogue with the
junta to restore national reconciliation in the country, but that effort
has failed during the past 20 years. The junta has refused to open a door
for a genuine dialogue. For now, she should work to engage a broad
participation of other stakeholders from the academic, social and economic
sectors to seek a broad-based consensus for national reconciliation
throughout the country.

•      Political Prisoners: Despite her release, there are more than 2,100
political prisoners locked up in prisons across the country. The release
of all political prisoners should be a priority when she resumes the
leadership of the democratic movement.

•      National Unity and Ethnic Armed Conflicts: She has already
initiated the idea of holding “a second Panglong conference” to restore
the unity of all ethnic nationals residing in the country, but she has not
been able to effectively deal with the issues affecting the cease-fire and
non-ceasefire ethnic groups in the past. The recent armed conflicts
between the junta's troops and a splinter group of the cease-fire
Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) in Karen State showed the need to
end armed conflicts. She should focus on a dialogue with all ethnic
groups, including the cease-fire armed groups, that leads to the creation
of a second Panglong conference.

•      Political Division: Political divisions have intensified due to the
recent election. Democratic forces are divided into two political camps:
those who boycotted the election and those who contested the election. As
democratic leader, Suu Kyi should seek an opportunity to talk with both
camps and try to reconcile their differences. She should first initiate a
reunion of the NLD and the National Democratic Force (NDF), which broke
away from the NLD. Moreover, unlike the political landscape before her
detention in 2003, new political parties now exist. She must initiate a
political strategy to include them in a reconciliation effort.

•      The 2008 Constitution and the 2010 Election Results: The NLD
rejected the Constitution as undemocratic. The Nov. 7 election held in
accord with the Constitution was deeply flawed by the junta's vote rigging
and violations of its own electoral laws. Suu Kyi should take this
opportunity to form a broader political alliance to address Constitutional
and parliamentary issues.

•      Sanctions, Aid and the International Community: Suu Kyi has voiced
her interest in finding a way to lift the international economic sanctions
that affect the people and she has tried to extend her hand to the junta
to cooperate in lifting the sanctions. After a review of all sanctions,
she should work for their elimination, and work to formulate a clear
policy on international humanitarian aid to Burma, and seek ways to
broaden access to international aid programs that seek to work inside the
country.

____________________________________

November 12, Ottawa Citizen (Canada)
Burma boils – Editorial

Burma's sham elections haven't increased that country's freedom or
prosperity in the short term. They have, though, provided an opportunity
for other countries, including Canada, to denounce the military junta and
demand the release of political prisoners.

That international pressure does matter. It's possible that Aung San Suu
Kyi, the most famous Burmese prisoner, might be released within days. That
would be the first real sign of progress in Burma in two decades, and
might ultimately lead to a more meaningful shift.

But the biggest immediate effect of the election was to trigger renewed
violence in a country that's been waging civil war of one kind or another
for more than half a century. That has created an exodus of an estimated
20,000 refugees into Thailand, where they can't expect much of a welcome
in an area already swelling with more than 150,000 refugees.

Even if some new arrivals are allowed into the crowded camps, they won't
find life there to be much improved, where refugees are tantamount to
prisoners.

Canada has resettled 3,900 refugees from those same camps over the past
few years. Canada has now turned its attention to other parts of the
world, but as the situation on the Thai-Burma border worsens, the Canadian
government should consider a second phase of resettlement from that area.

Canada's recent experience working with refugees from those camps gives us
all the cultural and logistical expertise we'd need, and the federal
government wants to increase the number of refugees it brings in from
resettlement programs. This is not just a moment to express solidarity
with the people of Burma. It's also a call to serve.

____________________________________
INTERVIEW

November 12, Democratic Voice of Burma
Depayin and the driver – Joseph Allchin with Kyaw Soe Lin

It was May 2003 and a young law student named Kyaw Soe Lin was on a very
special mission. As an organiser and legal aid for the National League for
Democracy, he had been given the job of driving Daw Aung San Suu Kyi on
her tour of the country. And as the stretch of detention that began in the
bloody aftermath of this event comes to an end, DVB spoke exclusively to
the driver at a house in Mandalay.

Suu Kyi had only been free for about a year when she set off from Rangoon.
Her tour with other NLD members, including party secretary U Tin Oo, would
take in the hoards of disenfranchised voters who had backed her and her
party in such numbers 13 years prior.

The trip began in mid-April and the first stop was Monywa. As it
progressed, the convoy received minor harassment from stone-throwing thugs
and other intimidating behaviour.

But as it drove from Moegaw in Sagaing division back to Mandalay on 29
May, the first signs of real trouble came. What followed was a political
crime of terrible proportions and a harrowing indictment of the
newly-victorious Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP).

On 29 May, Kyaw Soe Lin recalls that the convoy came under attack from
stones and catapults, with a number of NLD members left injured. Despite
this, it continued and made it to Mandalay. The next day the party headed
to Depayin district, and as they passed through the small village of
Kyiwa, up ahead in the road were two monks who stopped the convoy, asking
if Suu Kyi could address a gathering.

“I told Aunty [Aung San Suu Kyi] that we shouldn’t stop as we usually get
harassed around dusk time. But the monks said they have been waiting for
Aung San Suu Kyi since the evening before and requested that she give them
a speech and greet them. They were two elderly monks sitting and waiting,
so Aunty said we should stop for them.”

The two monks turned out to be imposters, and as the car stopped for Suu
Kyi to consider the proposal, the wrath of the Union Solidarity and
Development Association (USDA), a civilian proxy of the military, was
turned upon the convoy.

That day some 70 NLD members were killed by thugs from the party who last
week committed perhaps the greatest fraud the country has known.

“When we stopped the convoy, [NLD] youth securities surrounded our car
and
we were informed by the NLD members who protected our rear that a mob,
including fake monks armed with sticks and other melee weapons, were
approaching us in four or five buses,” said Kyaw Soe Lin.

“Then we heard they were attacking our convey and the villagers waiting
for us. Then they came to us and started beating people up – some
villagers and our members at the scene fought back. But Aunty told them
not to retaliate. The attackers, clad in monk robes, arrived at our car
carrying sticks and blades. They were all wearing white armbands. They
started beating – their way of attack wasn’t actually chaotic but quite
tactical/”

As they came under attack, Kyaw Soe Lin pleaded with the mob, protesting
that The Lady was in the car. This made no difference, and, he suspects,
probably only encouraged the mob, whom it is thought were trying to
assassinate the Nobel laureate. And if it weren’t for Kyaw Soe Lin, it
could have been that Daw Suu’s fate would have mirrored that of her
father, General Aung San. He was gunned down in a political assassination
in Rangoon in 1948, shortly after gaining independence for Burma.

“They carried on attacking the car and beat to death the youths [NLD
members] protecting it,” he said, eyes twitching with the tension of the
heinous memory. “Some just collapsed right on the spot.

“My anger then exploded and I was going to run over the attackers with the
car. I stomped on the lever three times and reversed the car. The
attackers had slipped a wooden stick into the car – I didn’t know when
they did it. The stick was jamming the steering mechanism so that the car
would flip when driven forward and it would look just like an accident. So
I reversed the car and the wooden stick broke. It was stuck between a
wheel and another part.

“As I reversed, they broke the windows on my side and Daw Aung San Suu
Kyi’s side, and also on the side where Ko Htun Zaw Zaw was sitting next to
me. They also broke the car’s headlights and the back mirrors were
shredded to pieces. The car’s body was also smashed up.”

He tells the story in the gloom of a rainy Mandalay evening, lights
flickering above. “I reversed but then I saw our youth members and the
students who came with us all lying on the ground and I was worried that
I’d run them over too. So I drove away to avoid them. We went a bit
forward in the car and saw that three other trucks were blocking the road.
I told Aunty there was something wrong with the car and drove towards them
without turning away. The trucks looked like six-wheel Hino trucks.

“I pulled onto the side of the road when we were really close to those
cars and slipped past them, only to reach to the area the attackers had
designated as the
“kill zone”. There were about 30 trucks with their headlights shining
behind the attackers, who were armed with sticks.”

“There were about 200 or 300 people dressed in USDA uniforms holding
posters. The attackers were so many.

“As our car got near there, they watched us in surprise. There were [NLD
security] clinging onto the sides of our car and I worried that the
attackers might pull them off if they got near us. So I pretended I was
going to run into the crowd and they scattered away. Then I pulled the car
back up onto the road and kept on driving. Then we saw there were road
blocks set up all the way across the road. I knew that we all, including
Aunty, would die if we didn’t leave there, so I kept on driving.”

As he drove through the mob, objects were hurled at the car, smashing more
of the remaining windows and hitting him. But he drove on.

“Aunty asked me if I was okay. I said I was fine and kept on driving; if I
stopped at the blockage, they’d beat us to death. So I ran over it and
found that there was another layer of trucks blocking the way about four
to five feet after the blockage. There was a gap left between the cars and
I drove through there – luckily the car fitted right in the space. Then
there was a line of policemen with their guns pointed at the car. I went
through them but didn’t hit anyone, as they jumped to the side. As I drove
on, I saw people with guns that looked like soldiers. Aunty said we should
only stop when we reach Depayin.”

But Kyaw Soe Lin was lost, and having never been to Depayin before, didn’t
know the route. Soon he stopped in a forest to try and mend the vehicle,
which was packed with fellow NLD members, including The Lady. After making
improvised repairs, he drove on and came to the town of Yea-U. But as he
entered the town, security personnel stopped the vehicle and asked who was
in the car. They were told to wait, and about half an hour later a large
number of military personnel arrived.

“They came out carrying guns and surrounded us. About 15 minutes later, an
army official – apparently a battalion commander – arrived and put a gun
to my temple and asked us to go with them. Aunty nodded us to go, so we
did. We were taken to Yea-U jail.

“We got there around 9pm and saw people apparently giving witness accounts
of the incident. They were all wearing the same armbands worn by the
attackers. Aunty told the police and intelligence officials there that she
would cooperate with them if they promised to abide by legal procedures;
otherwise they would just kill us all if they wanted. They promised to
abide by the law and took Aunty with them.

“I was held for two days at the Yea-U detention centre”; two days in which
the authorities intentionally denied Kyaw Soe Lin and his comrades food,
only giving them water. After two days he was transferred to Shwebo prison
and thrown in with the common criminals. He said that he was given worse
food than the thieves and rapists who were now his co-habitants.

Soon he was on the move again – hooded and shackled, he was driven to a
plane and flown to Hkamti.

“When we reached Hkamti, we were not fed. In the evening, they took away
the egg and good rice given us from Shwebo jail, saying that they would
feed us in the evening. They gave us a handful of un-husked rice with
rotting fish paste which some people could not eat. Some people vomited.”

They were kept there and soon the interrogation began. They were told to
say that the people in the villages who had welcomed them had been the
ones who attacked the convoy. This, needless to say, they refused because,
as Kyaw Soe Lin points out, the tour was officially sanctioned. “We took
this trip in harmony with them [the authorities]. For this reason, if they
beat us, let them do it; if they killed us, we have to die, she said to
us. Because of that, we did not say what they wanted us to say.”

On refusal of their demands to cover up the violent political
intimidation, the authorities began the torture, “stripped naked and
candle wax dropped all over the body,” he recounts. “They forced us to sit
on our haunches and one after another, kicked us like a football. The face
was kicked too. And as soon as they entered the detention centre, they
punch your face with fists. This is not a special detention centre’s
interrogation – they carried out the torture because I drove Daw Aung San
Suu Kyi’s car. I was deliberately tortured.”

He continues in harrowing detail: “They had drunk before interrogating us.
They stank of alcohol as they tortured us. And having tortured us, they
went away again. Then they threatened us – they said they will electrify
us; will keep us in the pouring rain. Not me alone, but all of those with
me were beaten up. The sounds of ‘I am scared’ and smashing – I heard
these. It wasn’t that painful when I was beaten up; it was more painful in
my heart when [other people] were beaten.”

The appalling conditions were also part of the punishment. “My detention
cell was slightly higher than standing height. On the floor, because it is
rainy season, water was above knee-level. You can’t sleep, can’t sit. They
handcuffed us behind our back from the day we arrived, and it lasted this
way for exactly a month, day and night. They also came to interrogate at
midnight and in the morning, and for the whole day.”

His detention was ‘only’ six months as there was no crime. This was not a
judicial detention in any sense of the word; they couldn’t even conjure a
vague law to detain the members of the convoy.

But like so many prisoners of conscience, Kyaw Soe Lin’s troubles did not
end with his release. “When I came out of the prison, I resumed my
studies. But they were following from behind relentlessly when I attended
classes. Then I told one intelligence agent that we were doing nothing
bad, nothing improper. ‘You released me because I am innocent. As it is
so, I do not like the way you are stalking me now’, I said. Only then did
they stop following me from behind. There was some stalking but no other
harassment.”

He adds that it took him years longer than a normal law student to receive
his licence to practice.

And so as Suu Kyi is finally released after more than seven years under
house arrest, the immense injustice that she is fighting is almost visible
on the troubled face of one of the closest witnesses to the harrowing
events that put her back in detention in 2003, Kyaw Soe Lin.

And as the authorities – perhaps in an effort to divert attention from
their fraudulent election and to appease a rightfully sceptical
international community – release their most famous prisoner, that
reconciliation and justice will be hard to find where impunity springs
eternal from the hands of the military to its chosen minions.

“All those beaten up were imprisoned, but for those who carried out the
beating, not one. No one knows who was behind the attack. And in the
prison, we were beaten up for one reason or another. It was a deliberate
way to torture. It is not like interrogation, just torture.”

____________________________________
PRESS RELEASE

November 12, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
UN experts urge Myanmar to release Aung San Suu Kyi and other prisoners of
conscience

Geneva – Four UN experts on Friday expressed concern about reports that
tens of thousands of people had fled from Myanmar into Thailand after
fighting erupted in the wake of Sunday’s election, although many appear to
have returned in recent days, and urged the Government of the Union of
Myanmar to release all prisoners of conscience, including Daw Aung San Suu
Kyi.

The Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, Tomás
Ojea Quintana, the Chair-Rapporteur of the Working Group on Arbitrary
Detention, El-Hadji Malick Sow, the Special Rapporteur on the right to
freedom of opinion and expression, Frank La Rue, and the Special
Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, Margaret Sekaggya, jointly called on
the Government of Myanmar “to release over 2,200 prisoners of conscience
who remain detained in prison for peacefully exercising their right to
freedom of opinion and expression or freedom of association and assembly,
as a step towards national reconciliation.”

The UN experts also reiterated their call to release Daw Aung San Suu Kyi
immediately and unconditionally, and recalled the most recent Opinion
adopted by the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on 7 May 2010 -- the
sixth such opinion* -- which found her house arrest to be arbitrary.

Despite repeated messages from the various experts that Aung San Suu Kyi’s
detention has been arbitrary, the Government has not expedited her
release. The four experts therefore urged the Government to consider the
recommendations already made, particularly the Opinions by the Working
Group on Arbitrary Detention and the proposals by the Special Rapporteur
on Myanmar, to remedy this situation. Under the terms of Aung San Suu
Kyi’s detention under Myanmar’s own legal proceedings, her sentence ends
this Saturday, 13 November. The experts urged the Government to ensure the
end of all restriction on her movement and activities.

Shortly after Myanmar’s first elections in 20 years, around 15,000 people
reportedly fled from Myanmar into Thailand to escape fighting between
Government and ethnic minority forces.

“The elections were billed as one of the final elements of the so-called
seven-step roadmap to democracy,” the UN experts said. “However, the
renewed clashes and resulting humanitarian crisis as civilians fled to a
neighboring State highlight the many unresolved challenges that Myanmar
faces. True democratic transition will require genuine dialogue with all
stakeholders including Aung San Suu Kyi, and the various ethnic minorities
that were excluded from the electoral process. These prominent voices are
necessary if Myanmar’s democratic transition is to have a chance of
succeeding.”

“The elections did not meet international standards, and the media was
effectively barred from covering them,” the experts said. “Many people
across the world called upon the Government to release all prisoners of
conscience before the elections in order to make the process more
inclusive. It did not happen. It must happen now if there is to be any
hope of national reconciliation.”

* Opinion No.12/2010, to be published in March 2011. To view the text of
the five earlier opinions (Opinion No.8/1992, E/CN.4/1993/24; Opinion
No.2/2002, E/CN.4/2003/8/Add.1; Opinion 9/2004, E/CN.4/2005/6/Add.1;
Opinion No.2/2007, A/HRC/7/4/Add.1; Opinion No. 46/2008,
A/HRC/13/30/Add.1) go to:
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/issues/detention/annual.htm