BurmaNet News, November 30, 2010

[Editor]

November 30, 2010 Issue #4093


INSIDE BURMA
Irrawaddy: NLD report documents election fraud
DVB: ‘She gives them strength in their struggle’
Kaladan: Reports of forced labour increase after elections

ON THE BORDER
Economic Times (India): BSF may guard border with Myanmar

BUSINESS/TRADE
Myanmar Times: Analysts anticipate slow but steady economic reform

REGIONAL
Kyodo: Suu Kyi calls for Japan's continued support for democracy in Myanmar

INTERNATIONAL
Irrawaddy: Suu Kyi among top 100 Global Thinkers

OPINION / OTHER
Morung Express: Burma’s Elections Towards Realistic Hope – David Scott
Mathieson
Irrawaddy: Remembering Burma's broken families – Yeni
NLM: Myanmar, the Union established with patriotic spirit – Myint Maung Soe

PRESS RELEASE
Canada International Development Agency: Canada supports families impacted
by Cyclone Giri in Burma



____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

November 30, Irrawaddy
NLD report documents election fraud – Sai Zom Hseng

The National League for Democracy (NLD), led by Aung San Suu Kyi, has
completed a draft report that documents cheating and unfair procedures in
Burma's Nov. 7 election and the party's central executive committee has
approved the report, according to NLD leader Han Thar Myint.

“The cases are coming mostly from individual candidates because they were
more oppressed in the election than political parties. There was only one
political party which submitted their case to us,” Han Thar Myint told The
Irrawaddy on Tuesday.

“The candidates who submitted their complaints about the Nov. 7 election
had to show evidence substantiating their complaint. Although we finished
the draft, there are still many more cases to come. We can’t confirm when
we will release the report because we have to compile many cases and if
necessary translate them into an English version,” said Han Thar Myint.

Dr. Saw Naing, a 42-year-old dentist, was an independent candidate who
lost in his constituency in South Okkalapa, Rangoon Division, where he
competed for a seat in the Regional Parliament against regime-backed Union
Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) candidate Aung Kyaw Moe.

When the vote-counting ended the day after the election, the Union
Election Commission (EC) declared Saw Naing the winner by six votes. But
that evening Burma's state-run television announced that the ballots had
been recounted and Aung Kyaw Moe had won.

“If the regime is not going to discuss the NLD report, I will be
dissatisfied. I want the regime to review the report and discuss it with
the candidates,” Saw Naing told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday.

In addition to submitting his case to the NLD for inclusion in its report,
Saw Naing signed a complaint letter and sent it to junta chief Snr-Gen
Than Shwe on Nov. 29.

He said he also wishes to sue the EC in court, but if a candidate wants to
sue the EC or an opposing political party, the complaining candidate first
has to pay a 1 million kyat (US $1,150) court fee. As a result, no
candidate has thus far been able to afford to file a lawsuit.

The NLD documenting team also collected the Nov. 7 experience of Thu Wai,
the chairman of Democratic Party (Myanmar), who was declared to have lost
in the general election.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Tuesday, Thu Wai said, “Even though the NLD
report won't effect the outcome of the election, it will record its
history. Whether the results of the election change depends only on the
government.”

On Nov. 17, China's state news agency reported that the regime-backed USDP
won 883 of the 1,154 parliamentary seats, or 76.5 percent, in the Nov. 7
election.

____________________________________

November 30, Democratic Voice of Burma
‘She gives them strength in their struggle’ – Htet Aung Kyaw

Once Burma’s most famous political prisoner, Aung San Suu Kyi has used her
newly-found freedom to offer support to the families of more than 2000
detained activists and politicians.

The 65-year-old, who was released from seven years under house arrest on
13 November, yesterday met with around 100 families following a memorial
in Rangoon to mark the three-year anniversary of the death of prominent
student activist Htay Kywe’s mother.

“She asked about their problems and encouraged them, saying she will meet
with them again and solve their problems,” said Phyo Min Thein, the
brother-in-law of Htay Kywe, who organised the event.

Suu Kyi had until last month been the world’s only imprisoned Nobel
laureate, but that changed following both her release and the awarding of
this year’s prize to detained Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo.

Unlike Xiaobo and the majority of Burma’s political prisoners, Suu Kyi was
placed under house arrest at her lakeside compound in Rangoon. Shortly
after her release, she told the BBC that she although she had had to
depend heavily on inner resources, she “always felt free”, and that the
conditions she had spent 15 of the past 21 years under paled in comparison
to life inside a Burmese prison.

The majority of Burma’s 2,203 political prisoners are held in harsh
conditions, and struggle to access adequate healthcare. Many are tortured
during the interrogation process before being sent to dank and cramped
cells, while some are kept in hard labour camps hundreds of miles from
their families.

Amongst the 2,200-plus political prisoners are 256 monks, many of whom
were rounded up after the September 2007 uprising.

According to Phyo Min Thein, Suu Kyi said that she would work to help
those who were imprisoned on religious grounds, and well as to find aid
for prisoners in poor health “based on the current policies of the ICRC
[International Committee for the Red Cross]”, who withdrew from Burma in
2006 after tight restrictions were placed on their access to political
prisoners.

____________________________________

November 30, Kaladan Press Network
Reports of forced labour increase after elections

Maungdaw, Arakan State: Officers of Burma’s border security force, Nasaka
have been coercing villagers in Maungdaw Township to work on a road
project along the Burma-Bangladesh border fence area in greater numbers
following the national elections earlier this month, said a village leader
on condition of anonymity.

fence-forceThe village leader said that Lieutenant Aung Myo Sein from
Nasaka headquarters in Maungdaw Township urged residents from Maung Ni
Para, who have prawn cultivation ponds to provide 10 labourers daily to
work on the road beginning November 27, offering 2,000 kyats per day for
each worker.

However, Zahir (28) a village youth said that in practice the wages are
rarely paid. He added that he and another Abdul Manan (45) were detained
and put in stocks for several hours after questioning an officer about the
unpaid wages.

Villagers from other areas of Maungdaw Township have reported that Nasaka
officers have forced residents to pay up to 10,000 kyats per household to
fund the road project.

A village elder said that in some areas, one man from each household has
been required to work on the road, while also supplying his own food for
up to 10 consecutive days.

The elder added that funds to pay workers had already been disbursed by
the general engineering (GE) team in charge of the road to Mazi (labour
leaders) and the Village Peace and Development Council (VPDC) at a rate of
2,000 kyats per day, but most of the money never reached the labourers.

The Nasaka Area 6 commander in Maungdaw Township secured the contract for
building the road, according to a Nasaka aide who declined to be named,
and that the project had been divided into several plots.

The aide however, added, that while the commander received between 40,000
and 50,000 kyats per plot, only about 24,000 kyats were being paid out to
relevant authorities for the plots.

In southern Maungdaw, Nasaka officers have reportedly forced residents to
work on a border fence project, requiring villages to provide one member
per household for the work since November 26 and threatening legal action
for all who refuse.

A village elder in Maungdaw said that Major Aung Hinn Zaw, sector
commander of Area 8, has initiated a dam project on the Myint Hlut stream
for the purpose of prawn cultivation to benefit the border security force,
but that he has told local residents that it will help with paddy
cultivation for area villages and sought labourers from surrounding
villages by threatening to impose fines if anyone refuses.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

November 30, Economic Times (India)
BSF may guard border with Myanmar

New Delhi – The Border Security Force (BSF) may soon be tasked with
guarding the Indo-Myanmar border, leaving Assam Rifles, the force
currently deployed in areas bordering Myanmar, to concentrate on
counter-insurgency operations in Manipur and Nagaland.

BSF has already indicated its willingness to take over charge of the 1,643
km Indo-Myanmar border, but sought sanctioning 41 additional battalions
before it assumes new responsibility. The additional manpower is needed to
handle infiltration, smuggling and other border-related issues.

"BSF was asked if it was willing and capable of taking over security of
the Indo-Myanmar border, as the Assam Rifles is deployed well inside the
border and not really effective (in handling border-related issues). We
have already said that we are ready to move in provided we are sanctioned
41 additional battalions, and given more sectors and frontiers," BSF
director-general Raman Srivastava told a press conference here on Monday
ahead of the force's 45th Raising Day.

The home ministry is agreeable to BSF's request and may soon sanction
raising of more battalions to make way for the force's induction at the
border with Myanmar. It has formally identified BSF as the force for
guarding the said border and may soon put up the proposal before the
Cabinet Committee on Security for clearance. "BSF can start setting up
border outposts following the clearance, which could be 3-4 months from
now," said a senior government official.

BSF's induction at the Indo-Myanmar border is crucial to the government's
border roads development programme. The force will provide the security
component for the government's ambitious plans to construct border roads
adjoining China, Bangladesh and Myanmar. "Once BSF moves in, its personnel
can give cover to CPWD and PWD contractors and engineers to take up road
projects near the Indo-Myanmar border," an official pointed out.

At present, the Assam Rifles is burdened with the twin responsibility of
guarding the treacherous India-Myanmar border and also conducting
counter-insurgency operations in Manipur and Nagaland. There has always
been a school of thought that Assam Rifles, the oldest paramilitary force
in the country, should be relieved of its border guarding responsibilities
and allowed to concentrate solely on counter-insurgency operations.

As of now, BSF is mandated to guard the India-Bangladesh border in
north-east. The Assam Rifles is tasked with guarding the India-Myanmar
border and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police is looks after the India-Bhutan
border.

____________________________________
BUSINESS/TRADE

November 22 - 28, Myanmar Times
Analysts anticipate slow but steady economic reform – Kyaw Hsu Mon

AMONG the many victorious candidates for the Union Solidarity and
Development Party (USDP) in the November 7 election were a handful of
high-profile businessmen.

Analysts say their presence could increase the likelihood that the party
will bring about much-needed economic reforms – and that those reforms are
implemented properly.

Among the well-known businessmen who will enter the Pyithu Hluttaw is U
Htay Myint, president of the Myanmar Fisheries Federation and head of
Yuzana Company, who won the seat of Myeik, while both U Win Myint, head of
the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry
(UMFCCI), and Dr Khin Shwe from Zaykabar Construction, will feature in the
Amyotha Hluttaw.

A handful of businessmen were also victorious for the USDP in region and
state hluttaws.

UMFCCI secretary Dr Maung Mg Lay said these representatives would be able
to provide valuable input when economic laws are drafted.

“As they themselves are businessman, they can listen to what the business
sector is saying and then make useful suggestions, either to enact
regulation or get rid of useless regulation,” he said.

He said he was confident the new government would be able to quickly
improve the business sector and the UMFCCI would lobby for changes it
considered necessary for the business community.

“Our federation has a duty to push the interests of traders and
businesspeople,” he said.

“There will be suggestions from businesspeople who are both in the
hluttaws and outside of the hluttaws over what kind of economic reforms
are needed. There’s also the party’s policy on what they will do about the
economy to consider,” he said. “It is difficult to see widespread reforms
within the next five years but I hope they can implement some measures,
particularly to make it easier for small and medium-sized enterprises.”

“At the moment, some businessmen are calling for a 10 percent reduction in
tax on export income,” he added.

According to the USDP’s policy broadcast on state media, the party
supports the emergence of a market-oriented system; the right of the
state, regional organisations, cooperatives and enterprises to participate
in the business sector; the development of small and medium enterprises;
and the prevention of monopolies and market speculation.

“If there is political will then it shouldn’t be difficult to reform the
economy. Whatever happens, I’m expecting at least some improvement,” U
Khin Maung Nyo said.

Among those elected to the Pyithu Hluttaw is U Ko Gyi, who easily won the
seat of Aungmyaythazan in Mandalay Region for the USDP.

The 63-year-old businessman has worked for various trade organisations
over the past three decades and currently serves as vice chairman of the
Mandalay Region Chambers of Commerce and Industry, chairman of the
Mandalay Region Oil Dealers Association, and executive committee member of
the UMFCCI.

He said he would focus first on issues affecting Mandalay Region, where he
said an important task was ensuring farmers are able to get a decent price
for their goods.

“That’s essential for improving incomes,” he told The Myanmar Times last
week. “If the economic situation improves I think we will see a shift
towards more industrialisation.”

He said he expected the number of light and medium industries to increase
and increasingly raw products will be value-added in local factories.

He said the party would attempt to increase job opportunities and incomes,
as well as ensure commodity prices remain stable.

“Job opportunities with sufficient incomes will emerge when the economy
develops. I think it will improve slowly, step by step. It won’t happen
straight away. This is just the start.”

– Translated by Thiri Min Htun

____________________________________
REGIONAL

November 30, Kyodo News
Suu Kyi calls for Japan's continued support for democracy in Myanmar

Yangon – Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi said Tuesday she
wants continued support from the Japanese government to bring democracy to
the military-ruled country.

Suu Kyi, in a telephone interview with Kyodo News, also said she will make
every effort to unite the pro-democracy forces in the country.

"We would like the Japanese government to work in coordination with all
the other governments who are trying to help along the process of
democracy," she said.

Suu Kyi, 65, who was released from house arrest Nov. 13 after more than
seven years of detention, said she has noticed the people of Myanmar,
especially the younger generation, have become "a lot more politically
invigorated."

When asked whether there has been any response from the military junta to
her repeated calls for dialogue, she said, "No, not yet," but added she
will continue to call for talks.

"One has to persevere. The junta has never been particularly enthusiastic
about dialogue, but we have had contacts in the past and I don't see why
we should not have more in the future," she said.

Commenting on Western sanctions imposed on Myanmar, Suu Kyi said she is
reviewing the issue.

"We are at the moment prepared to review the whole sanctions business,
because we want to find out what are the effects of the
sanctions...politically, economically, and we need to assess how that has
affected the lives of our people," she said.

Asked about her plans to cooperate with other democratic forces such as
the political parties that took part in the recent parliamentary
elections, she said would focus on unity among all the forces in order to
bring democracy to Myanmar.

"It is never easy to unite all political parties in any situation but we
have to try our best, because unity means strength and strength means
speedier transition to democracy," Suu Kyi said.

When asked whether she has a message for the Japanese people, Suu Kyi
said, "I'd like to say to the Japanese people that I've always found them
supportive of our movement for democracy and I'm really very, very
grateful and I hope that there will be closer ties between the two people
because I think we do have warm feelings for each other."

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

November 30, Irrawaddy
Suu Kyi among top 100 Global Thinkers – Lalit K Jha

Washington — Burma’s pro-democracy icon and popular leader Aung San Suu
Kyi has been named among the top 100 global thinkers for the year 2010 by
the prestigious Foreign Policy magazine.

Suu Kyi, who was released by the Burmese military junta earlier this month
after years of house arrest, was ranked No. 75 on a list of 100 eminent
global thinkers that is topped jointly by Warren Buffett and Bill Gates.

The US President, Barack Obama, is ranked third. In a video message
commemorating her selection, Suu Kyi noted how the world has changed in
the years since she was imprisoned. At the same time, she reaffirmed the
need to keep fighting for democracy.

“During the last two decades, my life has swung between periods when I
have ample time for thought and contemplation, and periods when I hardly
had time to catch thoughts on the wing, because there was so much to do,”
she said.

“But in all these years, the one thought that has stayed with me is that
we all have to work together to try to improve any situation. That is not
an original thought; I think it's as old as humanity: that there is
strength in numbers, that we must learn to help each other. But yet, that
is a thought that never ages,” the Burmese leader said.

Suu Kyi said when she came out of detention on Nov. 13, she suddenly found
herself in a new world, as it were.

“The people who came to support me, to offer me their greetings and their
continued belief in our cause, were much younger than the ones with whom I
had worked many years ago. A whole new generation—or perhaps I should say
several new generations—had joined us, and so it is a younger world,” she
said.

“At the same time, it is a startling, stranger world because all these
young people were so much more familiar with the new IT revolution than I
am.

And that really made me happy. It encouraged me. It invigorated me,
because IT technology means simply better communications, better
communications between different peoples, between communication between
different generations,” she said.

“I do not know what I am supposed to have contributed to the Great
Thinkers of this world. All I can say is that I stand ready to be taught,
to learn, to learn from the new thinking, to learn from younger people, to
learn from those who have spent the years that I have spent in detention
out in the free world, seeing what is going on, and from that seeing,
learning to think again,” Suu Kyi said.

“We have to think again, and again, and again, and yet, we never come to
the end of our thinking. We never come to the final conclusion. That is
the beauty of human nature—that we can go on, we can keep on going
forward, going upward, going outward in our minds and in our hearts,” she
said.
Foreign Policy magazine said Suu Kyi, upon her release, made a remarkably
level-headed call for long-term reform of the sort that comes from within:
"value change," as she put it, not regime change.

“And she has already begun to take action, filing papers to reinstate her
political party and promising an investigation into the recent election.
As she said upon her release, 'We have a lot of things to do,'" the
magazine said.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

November 30, The Morung Express
Burma’s Elections Towards Realistic Hope – David Scott Mathieson

The traces of optimism that had surrounded Burma’s first notionally
democratic experience for two decades vanish on closer inspection of the
outcome

The release of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi from house-arrest on 13
November 2010 gladdened all those inside and outside the country who hope
for progress towards freedom in Burma. But even as she took her first
steps to freedom since May 2003, there was a sense that this good-news
moment could effectively divert attention from the event held six days
earlier: Burma’s first general election for twenty years.

There was a modicum of optimism among both Burmese and western policy
analysts ahead of the vote on 7 November - not that the elections would
produce a rapid change to parliamentary democracy, but rather could
promise to be the first step in a long process of peaceful transition from
military to civilian rule. The foolproof rigging of the election proved
this sentiment to be misplaced.

The results have been incrementally announced in the state-run media over
the two weeks since the vote; all are now known. In addition, the official
New Light of Myanmar newspaper published a twenty-four-page supplement on
17 November with the ballot-count of each parliamentary seat.

The results
In the national-level upper house, the Union Solidarity and Development
Party (USDP) - formed and controlled by the military - took over 75% of
the seats (128). The USDP also won an almost complete majority from ethnic
Burman regions, and around 65% from ethnic states (in these, a handful of
ethnic-based parties and other candidates won the remaining seats).

In the lower-house people’s assembly, the USDP won around 80% of the seats
(257). Four other parties will also be represented in the assembly: the
opposition National Democratic Force (NDF, twelve seats), the National
Unity Party (NUP, eight seats), the Rakhine Nationalities Development
Party (RNDP, nine seats), and the Shan Nationalities Democracy Party
(SNDP, around eighteen seats). In the fourteen regional and state
assemblies, there were mixed results.

The USDP won almost everything in most Burman-dominated central regions,
such as Tennaserim, Mandalay and Rangoon regions. The NUP picked up a few
seats in Pegu and Magway divisions/region, and several in Irrawaddy. In
ethnic areas however, the picture was very different. In Arakan, the RNDP
took about half the seats, with less than 40% going to the USDP; in Shan
state, the SNDP has thirty-six seats along with a sprinkle of other groups
such as Pa-O, Karenni, and Inn ethnic parties. The USDP took most seats in
Kachin state, but the NUP also gained several and the Kachin and Shan
parties won at least one each.

The seats reserved for the military in Burma’s parliament (25% of the
whole) mean that the military/USDP will have control even if its majority
after the popular vote had been slim. There is also endless speculation
over how much power the state/regional assemblies will actually have; in
all likelihood they will be subordinate assemblies in the massive
national-parliament building in the new capitol, Naypyidaw (see "Burma's
authoritarian upgrade, 1990-2010", 10 June 2010).
In total, the USDP won more than 875 of the 1,157 seats open to the
electorate: buttressed by the seats reserved for the military (25% of the
whole) it will have a huge majority.

The voting turnout was estimated at a high 70%, although some areas
reported it at a far lower 30%-50%. Many observers inside Burma reported
the procedure to be peaceful and orderly, something guaranteed by the
intense process of conditioning the population ahead of 7 November and a
heavy security presence (and widespread apathy). But it seems clear that
the manipulation was effective enough to undercut the boycott campaign
pushed by the now outlawed National League for Democracy (NLD).

The fix
A series of reports of voter intimidation, fraud and people being turned
away from polling-booths has slowly emerged. But the method most employed
by the authorities to fix the vote was the use of advance ballots. Here,
opposition candidates observing the voting ascertained that they were
clearly winning, only to see officials march in with boxes of uncounted
advance votes that tipped the majority to a USDP candidate’s favour. It
will be very difficult to establish details of this fraud; among the
evidence is the testimonies weeks ahead of the election that officials
were forcing people to vote in advance, or in some cases informing them
they had already voted (without telling them how).

Nai Ngwe Thein, chairman of the All Mon Regions Democracy Party (AMDP),
ran for a seat in Mon state and lost to a USDP candidate. He told the
Irrawaddy magazine: “I got many votes at the polling stations but found
that I had lost when I arrived at the election commission (UEC) office in
Kyaikmayaw township because they added 5,000 advance votes that were in a
bag. I asked (the commission) to investigate and count the 5,000 advance
votes in the bag, but they refused to do it. We lost at some polling
stations as we did not have enough people to watch in all of them, so they
took every opportunity they could to fix the results. They (the USDP)
threaten the people because they want to suppress the whole matter of
advance voting.”

Many opposition leaders have issued strong statements about the conduct of
the vote. Cho Cho Kyaw Nyein of the Democratic Party called the elections
“a sham
it was definitely not fair”. Khin Maung Shwe of the NDF has said
the process “was not a free and fair election”. The NDF opposition, which
won only sixteen seats out of the 160 they contested, have announced legal
challenges; though the military-controlled electoral commission has warned
that any nuisance challenges could be met with three years imprisonment
under the draconian electoral laws.
On the day after her release, Aung San Suu Kyi was asked if her party made
the right decision to not contest the elections. Laughing, she answered,
“Yes, think of how busy those fiddling with the vote would have been if
the NLD had run!”

There were high expectations that the National Unity Party - the heirs of
the former ruling Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP) that lost to the
NLD in 1990 - would provide a counterpoint to the military party and its
assorted small proxy-parties. Many pundits predicted that the NUP was
offering an alternative to the overt military party, in part as it fielded
the second highest number of candidates - more than 950 throughout the
country. In the event it won just sixty-two, a devastating result given
the high cost of participation ($500 just to register a candidate).

Richard Horsey, a former official of the United Nations and International
Labour Organisation (ILO) with long experience in Burma, was arguably the
most astute western analyst of the elections in 2010. He predicted that
the NUP, attracting a wealth of anti-USDP votes, would most likely hold
the balance of power in the national assemblies, and that opposition
parties would perform extremely well. But ten days after the 2010 election
he wrote that the USDP had won a “massive majority” and the voting was
“marred by what appears to be massive manipulation of the vote count.”

An illustrative and egregious electoral contest took place in Hpakant
township, Kachin state, between former commander of the army’s northern
region Major-General Ohn Myint (USDP) and the prominent activist Naw Bawk
Ja (NDF). Bawk Ja’s participation in the elections gave her - a Kachin,
already known for her prominence in campaigns against repressive
development in the Hukawng valley - a measure of protection from threats
by military and business interests. Now her security, as well as others
who contested and lost, should be a matter of concern.

The lesson
Nay Win Maung, a prominent “third force” intellectual, magazine editor,
and leader of an influential NGO (Myanmar Egress), was a notable proponent
of the elections. He campaigned openly for people to participate; lobbied
scores of western diplomats on how the elections promised change; and
predicted a strong showing for the opposition, and the NUP.
On 10 November, three days after the elections, he wrote - under his
pseudonym “Aung Htut” - a short and contrite piece (“Those Who Climb the
Slippery Pole”) in his Burmese-language magazine The Voice: “We climbed a
slippery pole, knowing it's slippery. I don't think we were wrong. I
thought just by climbing it the first time, we would go rather far. That
opinion was wrong. I am ready to take any blame for that
I am not
reluctant to apologise to the readers for giving them hope, and therefore,
I would sincerely like to apologise to the readers.”
Such reactions underline the true significance of this moment. Many who
participated in the election throughout the country witnessed a rotten
process of authoritarian manipulation of the democratic idea - and
understood that to reform Burma’s political system and realise free
elections one day, realistic hope must prevail. Next time, it won’t be so
easy for the Burmese military to stage-manage the process.

____________________________________

November 30, Irrawaddy
Remembering Burma's broken families – Yeni

Yesterday, for the first time since her release from house arrest on Nov.
13, Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, accompanied by her son, Kim
Aris, met with relatives of some of Burma's 2,200 political prisoners.

The meeting, which took place at the Pannitayama Monastery in Rangoon's
Bahan Township, brought the country's most famous prisoner of conscience
and a member of her family together with 70 others who represent just a
tiny handful of the untold thousands in Burma separated from their loved
ones due to political repression.

Yeni is news editor of the Irrawaddy magazine. He can be reached at
yeni at irrawaddy.org.
The gathering marked the third anniversary of the death of the mother of
Htay Kwe, an imprisoned leader of the 88 Generation Students group who is
currently serving a 65-year sentence in remote Buthitaung Prison in Arakan
State. But it also served as a reminder of the enormous cost of political
activism in Burma, both for the activists themselves and for those closest
to them.

It was a bittersweet moment for many who were present. Some mothers said
that seeing Suu Kyi reunited with her son after more than a decade apart
made them long to see their imprisoned children. But they also said they
felt encouraged by the sight of the two together and were comforted by the
knowledge that they are part of a much larger family—the family of all
those who suffer for having the courage of their convictions.

“I felt happy when I met with Daw Suu and her son. It was like meeting
with my own family,” said the mother of Dee Nyein Lin, who is serving a
15-year, six-month sentence in Hkamti Prison, Sagaing Division, for taking
part in anti-government demonstrations.

For Suu Kyi, too, this encounter must have brought back memories of the
price she has paid for her role in leading Burma's pro-democracy movement.
Although she has always denied that she has made any extraordinary
sacrifices, insisting that she has merely followed her own chosen path,
there can be no doubt that she and her family have suffered greatly for
the sake of restoring human rights and democracy in Burma.

Ever since she returned to Burma in 1988 to care for her dying mother, Suu
Kyi's fate has been tied to the democratic aspirations of her country's
people. As the daughter of Burma's national hero, Gen Aung San, Suu Kyi
decided that she could not turn her back on the country after millions
took to the streets to demand an end to military rule. As a result of this
decision, she has spent 15 of the past 21 years in detention, and last saw
her husband, Michael Aris, in 1995.

Aris died of prostate cancer in 1999 at the age of 53, after having been
denied visas to see his wife for the three years leading up to his death.
While her family supported her, Suu Kyi said in a recent interview that
her sons had suffered particularly badly.

“They haven’t done very well after the breakup of the family, especially
after their father died, because Michael was a very good father,” she
said. “Once he was no longer there, things were not as easy as they might
have been.”

Kim Aris, who is also known by his Burmese name, Htein Lin, is married and
has two young children. He works as a carpenter in Britain, while his
older brother, Alexander, or Myint San Aung in Burmese, is an academic in
the US. Suu Kyi has never met her two grandchildren.

Even more than the sight of the thousands of jubilant supporters who had
gathered outside her home to witness the moment of her release, Suu Kyi's
reunion with her son must have been deeply moving for her.

Now that she has been freed, Suu Kyi has declared that winning the freedom
of Burma's other political prisoners is one of her most important goals.
It's not clear how she will achieve this, given the ruling regime's record
of ignoring her calls for talks, but she has said that it is an issue on
which she will not compromise.

“I don't think actually if we get to the negotiating table, the military
will say we don't believe in the release of political prisoners. I don't
think it works like that. That's one of my top priorities,” she told CNN
in a recent interview.

For now, however, the dream of Burma's political prisoners reuniting with
their families remains a distant one. For those still behind bars, all
that lies ahead for the foreseeable future is more hardship, and for their
families, the fear of their loved ones succumbing to the torture,
harassment, depression and lack of health care that have claimed more than
a few lives over the past two decades.

It is also important to remember that political prisoners are not alone in
being cut off from their families. Tens of thousands of Burmese exiles
around the world have also been forcibly separated from their families by
the repressive policies of Burma's military regime. Like so many others, I
have not seen my family—my parents and younger sister—since the army
seized power in 1988.

If a nation can be compared to a family, Burma is a deeply dysfunctional
one. We are estranged from each other and reduced to misery because some
members of our family seek only their own advantage and are indifferent to
our common interests.

But eventually, if we are not to fall even farther behind our neighbors
and the rest of the world, we will have to take steps to achieve some sort
of reconciliation. As a first step toward this grand “family reunion,” the
country's rulers should start reuniting the country's political prisoners
with their families and allowing Burma to become whole again, one family
at a time.

____________________________________

November 30, New Light of Myanmar
Myanmar, the Union established with patriotic spirit – Myint Maung Soe

True patriotism

"It is very important for everyone of the nation regardless of the place
where he lives to have strong Union Spirit.

Only Union Spirit is the true patriotism all the nationalities will have
to safeguard".

National Day is worth keeping in mind because it is the day on which the
people were well inculcated with a sense of patriotic spirit.

In Myanmar, National Day is held on a grand scale on the 10th Waning of
Tazaungmone every year, and it is in its 90th anniversary this year. This
year, National Day will be celebrated under the leadership of the
government in line with the four objectives.

-           to keep Union Spirit flourishing and uplift national prestige
and integrity
-           to promote national education
-           to ensure perpetuation of independence and sovereignty of the
State
-           to successfully complete State's seven-step Road Map

National Day was conceived in the struggles to fight the colonial
education system. The education system the British laid down for Myanmar,
that lost independence in 1885, was particularly designed to contribute
towards the colonial administrative mechanism.

British colonialists planned to enact University Act on 28 August 1920.
The bill manifests many points designed to keep Myanmar people out of the
reach of high school education including:

-           in Myanmar, there would be one and only university, under
which there shall be only one college,
-           those wishing to pursue tertiary education shall be boarding
students.

Therefore, the people were all in protest against the bill. In spite of
strong protest, the British government adopted and enacted University Act
in December 1920.

Thereafter, Yangon College and Judson College decided to protest against
the act. It was very brave of university students to launch their movement
to protest at the colonial education on the 10th Waning of Tazaungmone
1282 Myanmar Era (5 December 1920). The students' uprising was followed by
public revolts over the British government in the political and economic
spheres across the nation. Then, there emerged National College in Bahan
Township, Yangon, along with national schools all over the country, thus
rekindling the national spirit of Myanmar people and national cohesion.

The ninth conference of GCBA held in Mandalay on 24 October 1921 reached
an agreement to designate the 10th Waning of Tazaungmone 1282 Myanmar Era
(5 December 1920) as National Day. The special conference held at Jubilee
Hall in Yangon on 17 June 1922 passed the resolution. Thenceforwards,
National Day has been celebrated in Myanmar every year. After all, the
British government had no other choice but to designate the 10th Waning of
Tazaungmone as National Day and public holiday.

The day is a landmark in the history of Myanmar because on that day, the
students' uprising was launched to revive the people's sense of
independence struggles to throw off the yoke of the colonial rule.

So, the people should bear in mind that it took over 100 years and cost a
large number of lives. In addition, the people should safeguard
collectively the sovereignty of the State with correct national awareness
and without sectarianism and personality cult in the interest of the
nation. And the people have to equip themselves with a strong sense of
nationalistic fervour to be able to decide the future of the nation.
National brethren are to remain united in coping with threats posed by
internal and external elements to paralyze the motherland. The people are
also to keep their sense of patriotic spirit flourishing, taking lessons
from painful memories of facing untold miseries that came as a serious
blow to cultural heritage and national character.

Have a look at the conditions of the nation. The nation is being shaped
into a stable, peaceful and developed one. National politics is safeguard,
putting Our Three Main National Causes in the forefront. Now, the 30-year
plan is ongoing to promote the national education standard, as part of the
drive for all-round development in various sectors. With goodwill and
vision, the government is nurturing the youth into human resources with a
strong sense of patriotic spirit.

Myanmar is going to celebrate the 90th anniversary National Day on which
nationalistic vigor was conceived to launch struggles with patriotism to
regain independence. The people are to keep shouldering national duties
with patriotic spirit and strong national awareness that has been
preserved and promoted throughout the Myanmar history.

Therefore, I would like to exhort all those nationals who love Myanmar to
work in harness for non-disintegration of the Union, which was established
with patriotic spirit, non-disintegration of national solidarity, and
perpetuation of sovereignty.

Translation: MS

____________________________________
PRESS RELEASE

November 30, Canada International Development Agency
Canada supports families impacted by Cyclone Giri in Burma

Ottawa, Ontario―The Honourable Beverley J. Oda, Minister of
International Cooperation, today announced Canada's humanitarian support
to help the Burmese people affected by Cyclone Giri.

"The Government of Canada is responding to humanitarian emergencies caused
by Cyclone Giri in Burma. Many families are now vulnerable and without
access to essential services," said Minister Oda. "Canada's assistance
will provide emergency shelter and health services, as well as access to
drinkable water."

On October 22, this cyclone destroyed tens of thousands of homes,
including roads and bridges, leaving 100,000 people homeless and at least
260,000 people in need of humanitarian assistance.

Canada is responding with $500,000 in humanitarian aid, through the
Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). Save the Children Canada
and Médecins Sans Frontières Canada (MSF) will administer this aid. MSF
will receive $250,000 to provide basic health care services to the
disaster-affected population in the two hardest hit areas, Minbya and
Myebon, while Save the Children Canada will receive $250,000 to distribute
emergency shelter material and essential non-food items to families who
have lost their homes in the cyclone, including essential supplies to
prevent malaria and water-borne illnesses.