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Golden Yellow New History By Thiri_Nyunt

2008-02-25T12:08:00.000Z

15 February 2008 - DVB-TV NEWS

2008-02-16T20:54:00.002Z

Mr.CREATOR's BEST SELECTION CARTOONS

2008-02-14T23:37:00.006Z

14 February 2008 - DVB-TV NEWS

2008-02-14T20:38:00.001Z

NEWS UPDATE(FEB 14)

2008-02-14T20:10:00.008Z

2008-02-14T19:51:00.002Z

General Secretary Mahn Sha (right) of KNU pictured with Gen Bo Mya at Karen Revolution Day in 2005. (Photo: Htein Linn)

Karen Rebel Leader Assassinated
By SAW YAN NAING
Thursday, February 14, 2008.

Mahn Sha, the general secretary of the Karen National Union (KNU) was shot dead on Thursday afternoon at his home in Mae Sot, Thailand, according to KNU sources.
David Takapaw, the joint-secretary of the KNU, told The Irrawaddy on Thursday that Mahn Sha was shot by two unknown gunmen on Thursday at about 4:30 p.m. in his home near the center of Mae sot.
The only eye witness, a Karen girl, said, “Two men climbed the stairs of his home and said ‘good evening’ (in Karen language) to Mahn Sha. Then they shot him twice in the left side of his chest. He died immediately.”
The two men arrived in front of the house in a black car, while the other people were downstairs.
Mahn Sha was general secretary of the KNU, which has faced serious internal conflicts since the death of its charismatic leader, Gen Saw Bo Mya, in December 2006.
Majoring in history at Rangoon University in 1962, Mahn Sha joined the Karen movement in the jungle at the Thai-Burmese border as soon as he finished his studies. He was seen as one of the leading lights in the KNU and was being groomed to take over the troubled KNU leadership. He was 64.
The KNU has been plagued with recent conflicts. Last year, Maj Gen Htain Maung, former leader of the KNU’s 7th Brigade, signed a ceasefire agreement with the Burmese military regime. This was seen as yet another blow to KNU leaders who lost their fortified headquarters at Manerplaw to the Burmese army in 1995.
There have recently been several attacks and assassination attempts between mainstream KNU members and the breakaway 7th Brigade, now known as KNU/KNLA Peace Council.
Last month, Colonel Ler Moo, the son-in-law of breakaway leader Htain Maung, was killed in a bomb attack while sleeping at a communications office near the group’s headquarters. He had earlier survived an assassination attempt in April 2007 while crossing the Moei River by boat.
Mahn Sha was involved in ceasefire talks with the Burmese military regime in the past. He was highly respected among both ethnic and Burman allies. The Burmese regime saw him as a strong leader in the KNU who repeatedly called for genuine political dialogue.
He is survived by two daughters and a son.

Burmese Junta Warns INGOs
By WAI MOE
Thursday, February 14, 2008.

The relationship between the Burmese government and international health NGOs (INGOs) is like a doctor and “a patient with a tumor,” a government health official told INGOs during a meeting in Naypyidaw.
According to a document obtained by The Irrawaddy recently, the meeting on January 11, chaired by Dr San Shwe Win, the deputy director general of the public heath department, involved the ministry of health and INGOs.
San Shwe Win said that INGOs have to follow four basic principles: “non-political, non-religion, nonprofit and nongovernmental.”
Ministry officials and 14 INGO representatives based in Burma attended the meeting. Three INGO health groups, including Medecins Sans Frontieres—Switzerland, were absent.
One of the central issues was the INGOs use of junta-backed “coordination committees” to channel aid and services into the country.
During the meeting, the government distributed copies of the national planning ministry guidelines on INGOs, which was issued in February 2006.
Members of coordination committees are to be drawn from junta-backed social organizations such as the Union Solidarity and Development Association, the Myanmar National Working Committee for Women Affairs and, at the township level, the Auxiliary Fire Brigades and Veterans Association. The Burmese language version of the guidelines say that one of the duties of a township coordination committee is to monitor project teams and ensure that their activities don’t go beyond the stated scope of their mission.
Ministry officials said NGO staffers can only travel to a field mission with a “travel authorization” from the Ministry of Defense—Army. Applications involve various steps and take time. No permission, no travel, said the guidelines document.
The Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria cancelled its aid program in Burma in 2005, saying travel regulations prevented it from accomplishing its mission.
INGO workers have to apply for travel authorization two weeks in advance and if a trip is cancelled, it must be reported in advance as well.
No travel permits can be issued for short-term consultants or trainers from abroad, said officials.
INGOs also have to provide specific plans, purposes and the location of activities. Activities such as observation or monitoring will not to be accepted, said ministry officials.
The document said INGO projects in Burma will be reduced from five years to one year, and INGOs must renew their projects 3 to 6 months in advance because agreements between INGOs and Burmese officials must be approved by the ministry of national planning, ministry of revenue and attorney general of Burma.
All INGOs foreign staff who apply for a visa must indicate the period of time they will stay in the country and a reason.
Ministry officials cautioned INGOs about conducting surveys and research and advised them to keep such work to a minimum, calling it a “very sensitive issue.”
“Encourage utilization of the existing information from other NGOs,” said the document.
San Shwe Win chided some INGOs for what he called a double standard between foreign NGO staffers and ministry liaison officers. He said foreigners sometimes stayed in expensive hotels while liaison officers stayed at more moderate hotels.
“We do not request special facilities for them,” said San Shwe Win, but everyone should stay in the same hotel.

2008-02-13T15:59:00.003Z

Children’s Day should be a time for smiles and celebrations.
(Photo: Pat Brown/The Irrawaddy)

Children’s Day Nothing to Celebrate in Burma
By MIN LWIN
Wednesday, February 13, 2008.

Today is Children’s Day in Burma, commemorating the birthday of Gen Aung San, the founder of the Burmese armed forces and hero of Burmese independence. However, the current military leaders in Burma would rather erase his name from the history books and forbid his birthday being celebrated altogether.
“Gen Aung San’s story is genuine and honest,” said a former teacher from a primary school in Rangoon. “Something that is sorely absent among the current leaders.”
She said the authorities even removed a poem that was written about Aung San from primary text books. “Aung San’s birthday was erased by the military government when they took power in 1988,” she added.
“The name of Aung San always aroused excitement among young students, because teachers often taught stories about Aung San, his life and his sacrifice,” a Rangoon resident said.
But nowadays, teachers do not tell their students stories about Aung San for fear of reprisals.
A civil servant from Rangoon said that Aung San’s name has all but been erased from Burmese life. He is barely mentioned in the state-run media or in secondary school textbooks. Burma’s rulers no longer say they are following Aung San’s path, and the once elaborate Martyrs’ Day celebrations have been drastically curtailed.
According to a Rangoon resident, the reason the current military leaders want to keep Aung San at a distance is because of his daughter, Suu Kyi. Her presence in the country sits uncomfortably with the junta leaders. They regard her as their chief enemy.
However, the Township Peace and Development Council in Rangoon has given permission for the National League for Democracy to mark Burmese Children’s Day at their headquarters in Rangoon.
Whether celebrating Children’s Day is symbolic or not, the fact is that life expectancy and health conditions for Burmese children are increasingly worse since the military government took power in 1988.
In 2007, Burma’s child mortality rate was the fourth highest in the world, eclipsed in Asia only by Afghanistan, according to a UNICEF report in January.
According to Dr Osamu Kunii, a nutrition expert in Burma, between 100,000 to 150,000 children under five years of age die every year in Burma. That’s between 270 and 400 daily—and many are dying from preventable diseases.
Poverty, the economic crisis and instability in Burma drives more and more children in search of jobs. Some work from 5 a.m. until late at night in tea shops, bars and factories, often earning just 7,000 kyat ($ US5.72) per month.
A resident in Rangoon told The Irrawaddy recently that the amount of street children in the former capital is now increasing. “Many children aged between 4 and 13 are begging on the streets. Some young children are carrying babies and begging. Some street children look for plastic in the rubbish bins and dumps and some go fishing every day for their daily survival,” she said.
According to reports, sometimes street children who can’t produce ID are recruited into the Burmese army.

2008-02-13T15:32:00.003Z

Burmese people cast their votes in the 1990 elections.

Burmese Referendum: Here We Go Again...
By WAI MOE
Wednesday, February 13, 2008.

The referendum on a new Burmese constitution will be in May, but people are still in the dark about the exact election date and the contents of the constitution.
Many Burmese believe the election could meet the same fate as the 1973 referendum which was manipulated by the late dictator Ne Win, say Rangoon observers.
The last referendum in Burma was in 1973, which endorsed the 1974 socialist constitution. At that time, Ne Win’s regime declared that more than 99 percent of the voters supported the constitution, but critics say the results were rigged by the government.
Aye Thar Aung, an Arankan ethnic leader, told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday that a white box and a black box were at the polling station where he voted—a white box for a ‘Yes’ vote and a black box for a ‘No’ vote.
“I voted against the regime’s constitution in 1973. But when my township authorities declared the results, they said everyone voted ‘Yes,’” he said. “It means they cheated in the referendum. There were no independent or international observers to monitor the voting process.”
The current military regime also held a general election in 1990.
Aye Thar Aye, who was elected a member of parliament in the 1990 election, remembers harassment by authorities during the campaign.
“When I attempted to meet with people in Arankan State during that time, the authorities ordered boats not to take me and my team to campaign areas,” he said.
“But fortunately the voting system helped us and the voting allowed people to vote secretly,” he said. However, the election results were not honored by the regime, which refused to relinquish power.
On February 9, the junta announced the general dates for the referendum and nationwide election, in May and 2010 respectively. The referendum is the forth step in its road map to democracy.
“The approval of the draft constitution will be sought in a national referendum to be held in May,” Thiha Thura Tin Aung Myint Oo, Secretary 1 of the junta, said in the announcement.
The referendum on the constitution will be the second such election in Southeast Asia recently. Thailand held a referendum on a military-backed constitution in August 2007.
The coup organizers, who ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinwatara in September 2006, sent each household in the country a copy of the new constitution before the referendum. Seventy percent of the eligible voters turned out for the referendum, which passed with 56 percent of the vote.
The print media in Thailand provided extensive debate on the constitution’s merits. Thai broadcasting stations aired similar debates.
If the Thai constitution had failed in the referendum, the country would have returned to the 1997 constitution. In Burma, however, there has been no constitution for about two decades.
Also, open debate is not expected to occur in the Burmese referendum. No critical political debate has been allowed in the country since the coup by Ne Win in 1962. All daily newspapers are state-run or heavily censored. Many private journals and magazines are printed, but they will be prohibited from writing interpretive or commentary articles on the proposed constitution or political issues.
Observers see the Burmese junta’s referendum election as a move to ward off criticism from Western international community, and a way to shore up support from its closer allies, China, India and the Asean group countries.
A veteran Rangoon journalist who observed the 1973 referendum remembers that the socialist regime took a few years to hold the election.
“But now the referendum is only three months away,” he said. “So I don’t know what the junta will do or what will happen next.”
There are many unanswered questions, he said. “How can people participant in the constitution process?”

BURMA's CENSORSHIP BOARD

2008-02-12T20:42:00.000Z

12 February 2008 - DVB-TV NEWS

2008-02-12T20:36:00.000Z

NEWS UPDATE(FEB 12)

2008-02-12T19:58:00.000Z

2008-02-12T17:04:00.000Z

Members of Burma's opposition party National League for Democracy, wear traditional costumes of ethnic nationalities, stand in front of the party headquarters in Rangoon during the Union Day ceremony on Tuesday. (Photo: AP)

Union Day Protest in Rangoon
By SAW YAN NAING
Tuesday, February 12, 2008.

More than 30 protesters dressed in the blue uniforms worn by prison inmates staged a protest in Rangoon on Tuesday, demanding the release of political prisoners and respect for UN resolutions on Burma.
The protesters gathered for about 40 minutes outside the Rangoon headquarters of the opposition National League for Democracy, where Union Day ceremonies were being held. Riot police and plain clothes security officials were deployed outside the building and took pictures of the protesters on film and video, but no arrests were made.
An eyewitness said the protesters held posters and flags of ethnic groups. They voiced dissatisfaction with the pace of national reconciliation and accused the regime of wasting time in arranging talks between NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi and a government mediator, Aung Kyi.
Hundreds of people, including NLD leaders and prominent ethnic leaders such as Cin Sian Thang and Aye Thar Aung took part in the Union Day celebrations, one of the participants reported.
Union Day marks the date of the Panglong Agreement signed by Burma’s central government and representatives of various ethnic groups, such as Shan, Kachin and Chin nationalities, on February 12, 1947. Burma subsequently gained independence from Britain on January 4, 1948.
The Burmese regime’s observance of Union Day took place in Naypyidaw, where junta leader Snr-Gen Than Shwe urged people to work for the emergence of a lasting State Constitution laid down by the National Convention.
Than Shwe also urged people to supports implementation of the “seven-step road map.” The third stage of the “road map”—drafting a state constitution—was under way, he said.
In a Union Day statement issued by the 88 Generation Students group on Tuesday, the regime was accused of violating the fundamental rights of Burmese and ethnic people and civilians in Burma even though the country had won its independence from colonial rule more than 60 years ago.
Soe Htun, a leading member of the 88 Generation Students group, told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday that the military government had ignored the crisis affecting the Burmese people, who lacked democracy, equality, self-determination and a federal union.
Soe Htun accused the regime of trying to implement a “one-sided constitution.” He urged the Burmese people to “cooperate in order to gaining democracy, equality and a federal union.”
The 88 Generation Students group pointed out that a three-way dialogue was the best way to solve the Burma crisis.
Last week, the Burmese military regime announced that general elections will be held in 2010 following a referendum this May on a new constitution being written under the junta's guidance and expected to entrench its role in government.

Asean Chief: Burma Charter Vote a First Step
By NOPPORN WONG-ANAN / REUTERS WRITER/ BANGKOK
Tuesday, February 12, 2008.
Burma's ruling generals should be given the benefit of the doubt if they are serious about moving the country toward democracy, Surin Pitsuwan, chief of Association of Southeast Asian Nations, said on Tuesday.
"It has to begin somewhere and now it has a clear, definite beginning," Surin said of the junta's planned May referendum on an army-written constitution, followed by elections in 2010.
"I think it is a development in the right direction," the former Thai foreign minister told Reuters on the sidelines of a business seminar in Bangkok.
The announcement by the military, which has ruled Burma in various guises since 1962, has been derided as a "sham" by the United States and pro-democracy activists who say the vote will be held in a "climate of fear."
Surin said the international community's growing frustration at Burma's intransigent generals was understandable, but he said they should be given a chance to fulfill their pledges.
"Everybody has their own agenda on the issue," said Surin, who leads one of the few international groupings that allow Burma into the club.
"We have to wait and see how things are going to develop and unfold. Whether these steps are going to lead to true national reconciliation which is what people inside have been asking for and the international community has been waiting for," he said.
The army held elections in 1990, but refused to hand over power to Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, which boycotted the constitution-drafting process while its leader remained under house arrest.
Although not yet completed, snippets of the charter revealed in state-controlled media suggest the army commander-in-chief will be the most powerful figure in the country, able to appoint key ministers and assume power "in times of emergency."
Surin said Burma's announcement would be discussed by Asean foreign ministers meeting in Singapore later this month.
"I am sure they will be very keen to ask some questions and to consult among themselves how they can contribute or help," said Surin, who was critical of Burma when he served as Thailand's foreign minister from 1997-2000.
Western governments have called on Burma's neighbors—Asean, India and China—to put pressure on the generals after they ordered the army to crush the biggest pro-democracy protests in 20 years last September.
Despite rare expressions of discomfort at last September's crackdown, in which at least 31 people were killed, Burma's neighbors refuse to contemplate sanctions, saying words are more effective tools.

11 February 2008 - DVB-TV NEWS

2008-02-11T21:05:00.000Z

NEWS UPDATE(FEB 11)

2008-02-11T20:50:00.000Z

2008-02-11T19:50:00.000Z

USDA to Organize Referendum, Election
By WAI MOE
Monday, February 11, 2008.
The Union Solitary and Development Association (USDA) will organize the Burmese referendum on the constitution in May and the 2010 general election, including the selection of some candidates across the country, say USDA sources.
Sources close to the USDA told The Irrawaddy on Monday that USDA members at the township and district levels will form local commissions to oversee the referendum voting and general election process.
The USDA will also recruit respected local people to serve on the referendum and election commissions, said a source who requested anonymity.
Later, the USDA will play a role in the selection of what appears to be state-backed candidates in the general election, he said.
“Some people will be selected to serve as commissioners,” said one USDA member. “Some will be selected to be candidates in the 2010 election.”
“The association is now looking for well-educated, respected, wealthy people to be candidates in the election,” he said.
According to Khin Maung Gyi, the secretary general of the National Unity Party (NUP), the pro-junta USDA will transform itself into a political party in time to contest the 2010 elections.
The NUP secretary general told DPA news agency that he believed the 2010 elections would be free and fair, and could lead to an amnesty and the release of Aung San Suu Kyi.
Sources said most USDA members were surprised when the junta announced on Saturday that general dates had been set for the referendum on the junta-backed constitution and general election.
Htay Aung, a Burmese researcher in Thailand, said the regime originally created the USDA to serve eventually as a junta-backed political party. In addition, he said, the USDA has been a source for junta-backed thugs who were used most recently to suppress the pro-democracy uprising in 2007.
“The military junta will use the USDA as a political tool during the referendum and the election,” said Htay Aung. “In November 2005, U Htay Oo, the secretary-general of the USDA, publicly said that if it is necessary, the association will be turned into a political party.”
Senior USDA members recently met with grassroots members, in what may have been preparations for the referendum and election, said the researcher.
According to official documents, the USDA, formed in 1993, has 24 million members or almost half of the population of Burma.
“The military regime is confident it can win the referendum and election,” said Htay Aung. “The regime thinks votes by USDA members alone can keep the generals in power.”
According to The New Light of Myanmar, a state-run newspaper, the USDA’s Htay Oo and Brig-Gen Kyaw Swe, the commander of the armed forces’ southwest command, recently met with local members in Bassein as well as in Ngapudaw and Labutta in Irrawaddy Division.
Htay Oo also attended a USDA meeting on youth affairs in Naypyidaw on February 10.
In what is seen as a privileged perk for USDA members, the authorities recently gave the green light for state-approved cell phone licenses to be purchased by USDA members. The USDA also has been active in local state water supply projects and the registration process for identity cards across the country, work that is seen as enhancing its grassroots image.
USDA members held 633 seats, or 58 percent, at the National Convention which was convened in 1993 to prepare guidelines for the new constitution. The guidelines were finally approved in 2007.
Opposition group observers say that most USDA members are civil servants who were recruited by harassment and intimidation. It also includes teachers, students, business people and political activists.
Many Burmese view the USDA as principally an instrument of the regime that carries out violent acts against opposition activists and civilians. The group has paramilitary members who perform surveillance and search for dissidents in hiding.
USDA members played a key role in the bloody crackdowns during the 2007 uprising and in a deadly attack on Aung San Suu Kyi’s motorcade in 2003, in which about 100 people were killed.

NEWS UPDATE(FEB 10)

2008-02-10T20:04:00.000Z

2008-02-10T19:12:00.000Z

A giant billboard advertising the National Convention draws little interest from
the majority of Burmese people (Photo: AFP)
The Devil’s in the Details
By WAI MOE
Sunday, February 10, 2008.

Burmese pro-democracy groups and the international community voiced concerns over the junta’s announcement on Saturday of a referendum election on a new constitution to be held in May and a general election to be held in 2010.
A British foreign office spokesperson said, “The transition to democracy in Burma requires the participation of all political stakeholders,” voicing concerns raised by many Burma observers.
The government of Singapore, which currently holds the chair of the regional Asean group of countries, said the plan to hold a constitutional referendum and election was “a positive development” but the political process must “inclusive” of all groups.
State-run media announced the junta passed two decrees signed by Lt-Gen Thiha Thura Tin Aung Myint Oo, secretary 1 of the military council.
The first decree said the constitution referendum will complete the fourth step of the “seven-step road map to democracy.” Though not perfect, the proposed constitution will serve the basic needs of “the state and nationalities” of the country, according to the decree.
The second decree called for a nationwide democratic election of representatives to form a government, replacing the junta-ruled military government.
Nyan Win, a spokesperson of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD), told The Irrawaddy on Sunday that setting both dates at the same time was strange.
“The junta seems to be overly confident that its proposed constitution will be approved in the referendum,” he said. “We don’t know if the people will vote yes or no in the referendum. Normally, an election date is set following a referendum.”
Nyan Win also noted the lack of inclusion of opposition group leaders in the process, including Aung San Suu Kyi and ethnic leaders, as called for by the international community.
“If the junta only does this kind of one-sided proposal, it will mean the military junta will continue its rule in Burma,” he said.
When the junta formed a National Convention to draft guidelines for a new constitution, the opposition called the convention a sham. The proposed constitution that seeks the people’s approval was drafted by a junta-picked committee formed by the government.
Tun Myint Aung, a leader of the 88 Generation Students group, said citizens must study the proposed constitution carefully, since pro-democracy groups were excluded from the drafting process.
He noted the junta announced a decree, known as 5/96, in 1996 that prohibits criticism of the national convention. If convicted, a person can receive a life sentence.
“Unless 5/96 is withdrawn, the referendum in May will not be free and fair,” said Tun Myint Aung. “That means the Burmese people could face a bloodbath in the future because there is no meaningful resolution in the junta’s plans, and there will be mass protests again if the people do not get a real democracy.”
A veteran politician in Rangoon, Chan Tun, said the junta’s decrees were vague and unclear whether the voting would be democratic and transparent.
“The junta must be clear what it will do if the people vote ‘no,’ and if the referendum is free and fair,” he said. “In the 1990 election, the Burmese people chose a democratic government, but the junta ignored the election results.”
Aung Naing Oo, a Burmese political commentator in Thailand, said the two announcements were probably tactics to prolong military rule and a way to avoid meaningful pro-democracy dialogue, as called for by the international community.
“It means the junta does not want to compromise with dissidents,” he said. “Dialogue is death [to the junta] and [without dialogue] the Burmese conflict goes to a more dangerous level. The result is there will be only a nominal democracy or a ‘disciplined democracy’,” as the military has called for.
Larry Jagan, a British journalist who specializes in Burma issues, said that until the details of a constitutional referendum and general election are known, it is impossible to say whether the junta has made a significant step towards a real democracy.
The junta was badly defeated in the 1990 general election, he noted, and the generals may have tricks to use against the NLD and other candidates, including limiting their ability to field candidates, raise money and run a campaign.
Simply announcing the referendum and general election dates does not enhance the junta’s credibility, he said.
Jagan said the real issue is true dialogue which is not taking place.

NEWS UPDATE(FEB 09)

2008-02-09T21:17:00.000Z

2008-02-09T12:13:00.000Z

UN Chief Must Now Do His Best for Burma
By MIN ZIN
Saturday, February 9, 2008.
If leverage is the ticket to mediation, the United Nations’ effort to bring about political reconciliation in Burma has proved increasingly powerless in the past few months.
The military leaders in Naypyidaw remain defiant in the face of the UN's calls for introducing an inclusive national reconciliation process in Burma. Snr-Gen Then Shwe even rejected the UN suggestion to establish a poverty alleviation commission to address the country’s humanitarian crisis, clearly demonstrating the regime's criminal disregard for the people’s welfare.
The junta delayed a return visit by UN Special Envoy Ibrahim Gambari until mid-April. China and India, through quiet diplomacy, are now trying to press the regime to agree to allow Gambari back this month. The recalcitrant generals, however, appeared to set March as the earliest date for his return.
Despite UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon repeatedly warning that a return to the status quo existing before the September crisis is not sustainable, the situation is now going back to square one. Everyone realizes that the momentum of the UN's mediation efforts has been dying down, and needs to be critically strengthened.
"Failure of Gambari's mission strongly suggests that the mandate of the secretary-general falls far short," said Aung Din, executive director of the US Campaign for Burma. "The Burma mandate of Ban Ki-moon, which has now been given by the UN General Assembly, must be enhanced and strengthened by the UN Security Council."
According to diplomatic sources close to the UN, the possibility of such initiative so far seems to be slim, in the face of China’s position within the Security Council. Ban Ki-moon may not want to risk China’s rejection by making such a bold recommendation to the Council.
"Ultimately, it is not a question for Ban Ki-moon but for members of the UNSC," Farhan Haq, a spokesman for Ban Ki-moon, told The Irrawaddy. "We continually update the Council through Gambari on what we have done on Burma. If they want to create a separate mandate, it would be for members of the Council to decide."
It seems that Ban Ki-moon is not ready to make such a proactive demand. If he pushed it within the UNSC, the Council could receive his recommendation as a procedural formality, but many observers believe that China would veto an actual decision and the initiative would then fail.
Aung Din disagrees, however —"No matter whether or not the UNSC will agree to develop a Burma mandate for Ban Ki-moon, it is his duty to ask for an effective mandate from the UNSC so that he can make a mediation effort in Burma possible," he said.
Another possible mechanism, apart from a direct UNSC mandate, is the "Group of Friends of the Secretary-General on Myanmar," a group of 14 nations—Australia, Indonesia, Russia, the United States, China, Japan, Singapore, Vietnam, France, Norway, Thailand, India, Portugal and the United Kingdom. Ban Ki-moon convened the first meeting of the group on December 19 last year to assist him in his efforts to spur changes in Burma.
The Group is officially described as “a consultative forum for developing a shared approach in support of the implementation of the Secretary-General’s good offices mandate.” The group will meet informally as needed.
Many analysts wonder whether it could develop into possible multi-party talks on the North Korea model. Some Burma advocates in the US have suggested that Ban Ki-moon should convene the next meetings of the group in such Asian capitals as Jakarta or Beijing, thus making regional countries more committed and involved in UN-led mediation efforts.
Gambari recently expressed his frustration: "Everybody that I have spoken to have on record supported the role of the good offices of the secretary-general. But I am not satisfied with that. I want that general verbal expression of support to be translated into concrete action in support."
However, the possibility of such a large group as the "Group of Friends,” with diverse interests and views, offering the "concrete action in support" called for by Gambari remains a distant hope.
All in all, it is Ban Ki-moon who now needs to make a decisive move to strengthen his good offices role. In a recent report, the International Crisis Group (ICG) called for the direct involvement of Ban Ki-moon, saying: "It would be useful for Ban Ki-moon to get more personally involved, particularly at times when negotiations may appear to be deadlocked." It even urged Ban Ki-moon to pay a personal visit to Naypyidaw in the near future.
Burma’s opposition National League for Democracy said it would like to see such a visit at the highest level take place.

8 February 2008 - DVB-TV NEWS

2008-02-08T20:16:00.000Z

BEIJING OLYMPICS 2008

2008-02-08T20:07:00.000Z

NEWS UPDATE(FEB 08)

2008-02-08T20:00:00.000Z

2008-02-08T19:00:00.000Z

Many Burmese citizens are reluctant to boycott their favorite products

New Campaign to Boycott Burmese Businesses
By MIN LWIN AND VIOLET CHO
Friday, February 8, 2008.

Despite the fact the United States government imposed additional sanctions on the Burmese military junta and its cronies recently, underground activists have initiated a campaign to boycott any goods believed to be linked with the regime.
Anonymous leaflets were spread around Rangoon this week calling on Burmese citizens to boycott businesses belonging to cronies and supporters of the regime. The leaflets accused the military authorities of bullying the ordinary people of Burma and making them slaves of the junta.
The proposed items for boycott include Myanmar Beer, Dagon Beer, London Cigarettes and Vegas Cigarettes, the state-owned Aung Bar Lay Lottery and all donut shops believed to be owned by relatives of the military leaders.
Myanmar Beer, Dagon Beer, London Cigarettes and Vegas Cigarettes are monopolized by the Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings Company Limited (UMEH).
UMEH is a military conglomerate. Shares in the holding company are held by members of the Ministry of Defense and the armed forces. Its board of directors is comprised of senior military officers.
J’ Donuts coffee shops are a popular chain in Rangoon and are believed to be owned by Kyaing San Shwe, the son of Snr-Gen Than Shwe. The usual suspect on all sanctions targets, Htoo Trading Company Limited, is also on the boycott list. The Chief Executive Officer of Htoo Trading Company Limited is the notorious Burmese businessman, Tay Za. Three companies and two individuals that have close connections to Tay Za were also added to the list for targeted sanctions.
Other persons singled out for targeted sanctions include the spouses of senior officials of the military junta.
Interestingly, government newspapers The New Light of Myanmar, The Mirror and two privately run journals, Nan Myint and Snaphot, were on the boycott list. Snaphot is owned by publisher Myat Khaing who is a close associate of Brig-Gen Kyaw Hsan, the minister for information.
Despite the bold moves, reaction from people in Burma has been mixed.
The Irrawaddy spoke to residents in Rangoon, Arakan State, Kachin State, Sagaing Division and Mandalay to sound out their opinion on the fresh boycott call by an underground group in Burma.
A beer shop owner in Sagaing who had not seen the leaflets said: “Burmese people don’t dare take part in this recent boycott campaign.
“We can’t even boycott Chinese products because we depend on Chinese toothpaste every morning,” he explained.
The general manager of an employment agency in Rangoon said, “It is not possible for Burmese people to boycott these products. If you don’t want to smoke London cigarettes, do you have any other choice?”
“I don’t think it will have any effect,” said Ko Ye, a tourist guide from Rangoon. “We don’t have anything to replace these products if we boycott them.”
Speaking to The Irrawaddy by telephone on Friday, a businessman who runs an oil and diesel retailers in Rangoon said, “We have no other choice for beer and cigarettes in Burma. We have long been using these products to relax and release tension.” He added that it would be impossible to boycott these products “if we are left with nothing.”
A writer and critic in Rangoon said, “I don’t think the boycott will be effective, because all the listed products are used by people around the country.”
He also said that it was difficult to find business and companies that have no connections with the military authorities.
A senior editor who publishes a monthly magazine in Rangoon said, “It is a good idea as a people’s movement, but it’s not practical. I think more people will join the boycott movement if it is beneficial to the people.”
However, a Kachin man living in Lai Zar, along the Kachin-Chinese border, backed the boycott campaign.
“I agree that we have to boycott these companies and firms that are close to the military regime,” he said. “Supporting them keeps the regime in power.”

Don’t Shoot the Messenger
Friday, February 8, 2008.
Since the bloody crackdown in September, the regime in Naypyidaw has become increasingly isolated. However, they are not sitting idly. They are buying time while ignoring the international community’s calls to reconcile with the democratic opposition and initiate a genuine dialogue.
The Western governments have tightened sanctions on the junta, since constructive engagement is so obviously doomed to failure. This, we believe, is the correct approach.
In this respect, the United States government has led the way in punishing the generals and cutting them off from their aspirations. The US is also the main player in keeping the spotlight on Burma. Recently, the Bush administration increased targeted sanctions on the regime leaders, their families and cronies, and leading Burmese businessmen. We welcomed the decision and hope the sanctions are expanded to hurt all powerful businesspersons who have strong connections to the military leaders. They deserve no less.
But more needs to be done. The generals know that the world’s attention is shifting and its attention span on Burma is short. The regime’s wrath is unyielding and the crackdown on dissidents continues.
Recently, a young man named Nay Phone Latt was arrested for blogging. He could be charged under Burma’s draconian Emergency Act and sentenced to seven years in prison.
The Burmese security forces have also stepped up surveillance on Internet cafés in Rangoon and those who visit them in the wake of hundreds of images and photos being sent out during the carnage in September.
The regime is fighting against a new enemy—cyber dissidents and citizen reporters, armed with cell phones, digital cameras and memory sticks.
Therefore, for the sake of change in Burma, it is vitally important that the lines of communication remain open at all times.
And so to New Zealand, where, last Monday, debate flared in parliament over the contracting of state-owned telecommunications company Kordia to install cell phone towers in Burma.
Kordia chief executive Geoff Hunt was quoted as saying that the firm had installed mobile base station equipment for Myanmar Post and Telecommunications.
New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark, who had denounced the Burmese regime in the past, was caught between a rock and a hard place. She defended her government’s position saying the contract would probably help democracy.
The Green Party, with six members in New Zealand’s 121-seat parliament, issued a press release criticizing the government for giving the green light for a public company to work in Burma.
The party’s foreign affairs spokesman, Keith Locke, said, “It is shocking that our government should be encouraging a state-owned company to help the Burmese regime, one of the most ruthless in the world.”
Clark countered by stating that there were no economic sanctions on Burma. The small contract that the state-owned Kordia signed was a joint venture with Thai firm ALT Inter Corporation, and was worth about NZ $80,000 (US $62,400).
“Quite frankly, I think that's probably an aid to democracy [in Burma], not a step backwards,” she said. “Because one of the ways of getting news out to the world and photos and images out to the world is precisely through that technology.”
In fact, she is not wrong. However, we’ve heard these lame excuses too often in the past.
Some years ago, the Australian government provided a series of human rights training courses to Burmese officials in the naïve assumption that the regime would see the light and start respecting the rights of its citizens.
A few years later, in May 2003, a gang of thugs trained by the regime attacked democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her motorcade. Where were the human rights trainees that day?
The junta is a lingering leopard that will never change its spots.
Nevertheless, we believe that the lines of communication between Burma and the outside world must remain open. It is essential that the citizens of Burma be able to purchase cell phones, SIM cards and other IT devices freely and at reasonable prices.
The state-controlled cost of US $1,500 for a SIM card alone is certainly not reasonable.
However, ultimately, more cell phones, cheaper Internet access, a higher computer literacy and unknown future gadgets will inspire a young generation who want to share stories and news with the rest of the world.
We look forward to seeing more and more ordinary folk in Burma chatting on mobile phones, exchanging photos by e-mail and researching news on the Internet. Burma should be flooded with cell phones and Internet cafés.
In the meantime, we must keep pressure on the regime to stop arresting cyber dissidents and citizen reporters who conform to Prime Minister Clark’s image as messengers of news, photos and images to the world.

6 February 2008 - DVB-TV NEWS

2008-02-06T23:45:00.000Z

NEWS UPDATE(FEB 06)

2008-02-06T23:36:00.000Z

2008-02-06T10:08:00.000Z

The US says the latest sanctions will hit the business interests of the ruling military [Reuters]
US steps up Myanmar sanctions
The US has tightened financial sanctions against Myanmar, moving to target what it says are businessmen with close ties to the military government.

Topping the list is Tay Za, a tycoon identified as the "financial henchman" of Myanmar's ruling generals and an arms dealer closely associated with the government, a US treasury spokesman said.
Adam Szubin, head of the treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, said Tay Za's Htoo Group of Companies was in charge of implementing key government projects in the country and buying military hardware.
Szubin said the Bush administration "has made clear that we will continue to take action against the military junta and those who prop it up so long as human rights violations continue and democracy is suppressed.''

The treasury also named Aung Thet Mann, one of Tay Za's directors and the son of General Thura Shwe Mann, a senior government official and a member of the ruling State Peace and Development Council.

"Tay Za has used his business relationship with Aung Thet Mann to win favourable business contracts from the Burmese junta," it said in a statement.

The US started imposing targeted sanctions against Myanmar after the government's bloody crackdown on anti-government protesters in September last year.

The new sanctions against individuals and firms entail freezing their assets under US jurisdiction and barring Americans from conducting business with them at the risk of heavy fines and prison sentences.

On Tuesday the White House condemned Myanmar's rulers for continuing to arrest activists and Buddhist monks, and for barring UN special advisor Ibrahim Gambari from returning to Myanmar.

"The actions of Than Shwe and his associates remain unacceptable to all those who value freedom," Dana Perino, the White House press secretary, said in a statement, referring to the continued house arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi, the opposition leader and Nobel peace laureate.

The statement added: "The president has said that the United States would continue to review our policies and consider additional measures if Than Shwe's junta did not end its brutal oppression of the Burmese people."

The latest designation of sanctions will freeze any assets of family members of the military leadership and other key individuals and businesses within Tay Za's financial network.

The companies on the treasury blacklist include Myanmar Avia Export Company Ltd, Ayer Shwe Wah Company Limited and Pavo Aircraft Leasing Pte Ltd in Singapore.

Four wives of senior government officials were also among the targets – Khin Lay Thet, the wife of General Thura Shwe Mann; Myint Myint Ko, the wife of Construction Minister Saw Tun; Tin Lin Myint, the wife of Lieutenant-General Ye Myint; and Myint Myint Soe, the wife of Foreign Affairs Minister Nyan Win.

It’s Do-or-Die Time for NLD
By KYAW ZWA MOE
Tuesday, February 5, 2008.
My heart sank last week when I heard the words of pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi: “Let’s hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.”
It’s a discouraging, inconvenient truth that Suu Kyi shared with her National League for Democracy colleagues when the regime allowed her to meet with them briefly last week.
The words of the detained opposition leader indicate that the political state of Burma is moving from bad to worse to the worst.
Her words came out of her frustration with the ongoing “talks” with the ruling military regime. The regime appointed a liaison officer to deal with Suu Kyi after it faced mounting internal pressure following its harsh crackdown on the monk-led demonstrations last September.
Since then, the liaison officer, ex-Maj-Gen Aung Kyi, has met with Suu Kyi four times, but the meetings haven’t gone beyond trivial topics.
According to the NLD, Suu Kyi requested to meet with the head of the military junta, Snr-Gen Than Shwe, but she has received no response.
Suu Kyi also “is not pleased with the talks” mainly because of the lack of a time frame, NLD spokesperson Nyan Win said after he met with her last Wednesday. According to one NLD member, she does not want to give false hope to the people of Burma.
Yes, it’s important for a leader not to give false hope to the people.
The Burmese people heard her statement, and they appreciate her candor. But they also have a right not to lower their expectations of her and the NLD leadership.
Specifically, the people have a right to hear what type of substantive strategy Suu Kyi and her colleagues have to break the current political stalemate with the stubborn generals. Most Burmese would support a more pro-active NLD policy with its own guidelines, strategy and deadlines for taking the struggle for democracy to a higher level.
Such expectations from the public are only fair. The NLD is the main opposition party. It received about 82 percent of the vote in the 1990 nationwide election. The party has a clear mandate to carry out its mission to implement democracy in Burma.
The NLD has tried, but it has failed to create a unified policy that the people can rally behind. The party has suffered from a sustained, brutal assault waged by the generals ever since the 88 uprising.
The senior NLD members are in their 70s and 80s. Many have served time in prison. They have earned the people’s respect and sympathy. The leaders have a strong commitment to the movement.
However, to be frank, this does not of itself qualify them to be the leaders of the party and the democracy movement at this time. A large segment of the public is frustrated, searching for new ways to break the impasse that has gripped Burma for years.
In its 20-year-hisotry, the NLD has been more political than practical, especially during the years when Suu Kyi has been under house arrest; she has been detained for 12 years of the past 18 years.
Some observers believe many of the NLD’s senior leaders regard themselves as “caretakers,” rather than freedom fighters whose goal is to keep the party alive in the absence of its real leader.
Meanwhile, the junta has effectively destroyed or impeded the work of the broader pro-democracy movement to the point where the 2007 uprising occurred more or less without the active participation of the NLD leadership, although the party’s rank and file membership took part in the demonstrations.
The NLD, despite the brutality of the generals, must work harder to formulate new, meaningful policies that can rally the Burmese people. Otherwise, despite its past accomplishments, it has failed.
NLD critics take the line: “Without Suu Kyi, the party is nothing.” It should not, and must not, be like that. The party, its members and the public need a broad reliable leadership within an effective opposition party.
As an example, look at South Africa’s apartheid struggle. When the head of the African National Congress, Nelson Mandela, was in prison, other leaders carried on the movement. So should the NLD.
Last week, Suu Kyi told her colleagues to move forward without her, according to a senior NLD member. He quoted her as saying: sometimes she will lead; sometimes she will follow others’ leadership in the party.
Suu Kyi also said sometimes the party needs to push and sometimes it needs to pull, and if it is necessary, everyone needs to be ready to give up everything.
Golden words! It’s time for the NLD leadership to take her words to heart. It’s time for bold ideas and action. The party must be in the forefront of the pro-democracy movement. The party’s mission is not to keep itself alive, but to keep the country alive.
It’s a do-or-die time for the NLD leadership and the Burmese people.

5 February 2008 - DVB-TV NEWS

2008-02-05T23:43:00.000Z

NEWS UPDATE(FEB 05)

2008-02-05T23:13:00.000Z

2008-02-05T21:07:00.000Z

Missing Blogger Seen in Detention,

Opposition Party Says
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tuesday, February 5, 2008.

A blogger who was apparently picked up in an Internet crackdown by the Burma military government has been seen in detention at a government office, an opposition party spokesman said.
The blogger, Nay Phone Latt, disappeared on January 29.
Officials have declined to confirm his whereabouts—or his arrest. Recently-released opposition party members said Monday they saw him in a government office while they were briefly detained.
No reason for Nay Phone Latt's apparent detention has been made public, but he disappeared amid tightening government control of the Internet. Even in normal times, the ruling junta tries to block many Web sites it considers subversive.
Reporters Without Borders said last week that Burmese authorities have stepped up their surveillance of the Internet since the beginning of the year, pressuring Internet cafe owners to register all users' personal details and to program screen captures every five minutes on each computer.
Bloggers played a major role in ensuring the free flow of information in and out of Burma late last year during massive anti-government protests and the violent crackdown that ended them.
They managed to post up-to-date news, photos and commentary that captured the world's attention.
Three youth members of the opposition National League for Democracy party were detained last week. They said after their release Monday that they had seen Nay Phone Latt at the Home Ministry, which coordinates security affairs, said league spokesman Nyan Win.
They also saw a woman believed to be a league member, he said without elaborating.
The case of Nay Phone Latt, also known as Nay Bone Latt or Nay Myo Latt, drew the concern of worldwide organizations that promote freedom of the press, including the International Freedom of Expression Exchange and Reporters Without Borders.
Reporters Without Borders said the only blog platform that remained accessible within Burma, the Google-owned Blogger, has been blocked by the regime since Jan. 23, preventing bloggers from posting entries unless they use proxy Internet servers or other ways to get around censorship.
Nyan Win said Nay Phone Latt operates a legal internet business in Thuwunna in Yangon's eastern suburbs but did not know why he was arrested.
Nay Phone Latt's Burmese-language blog at http://www.nayphonelatt.net/ was still accessible Monday outside Burma, with visitors able to add comments.
Buddhist monks last September began leading anti-government protests, the biggest in two decades. At least 30 people are believed to have been killed when the government suppressed the demonstrations, and thousands detained, though most have since been released.

2008-02-04T22:02:00.000Z

Burmese publications have come under increasing scrutiny (Photo: Yuzo)

Burma’s Censors are Now Also Code-breakers
By SAW YAN NAING
Monday, February 4, 2008.
Burma’s censorship authorities have found new tools to monitor submitted written manuscripts before approval—mirrors and magnifying glasses.
Rangoon-based writers told The Irrawaddy that censors working in the Press Scrutiny and Registration Board office are now equipped with mirrors and magnifying glasses to help them seek out hidden messages in poems, novels, stories and advertisements.
The new tools were introduced following the discovery in a published poem of a clandestine message mocking junta leader Snr-Gen Than Shwe.
The first words of each line of the short poem, written by Saw Wai under the title “February 14” and published in the weekly “Love Journal,” made up the message: “Senior General Than Shwe is foolish with power.” Saw Wai was subsequently arrested.
The head of the censorship board, Maj Tint Swe—himself a writer, with the penname Ye Yint Tint Swe—was summoned to a meeting with high-ranking officials, where he had to explain the lapse. Sources say he may soon be fired.
Saw Wai’s ruse was the second of its kind to mock Than Shwe in this way. In July 2007, an advertisement in the English-language semi-official The Myanmar Times newspaper contained a hidden message calling Than Shwe “a killer.”
The advertisement was placed in the paper by a Danish satirical art group posing as "The Board of Islandic Travel Agencies Ewhsnahtrellik and the Danish Industry BesoegDanmark." When read backwards, the Danish-looking word "Ewhsnahtrellik" spelt out "Killer Than Shwe."
A Burmese editor living in Rangoon confirmed to The Irrawaddy on Monday that censors were now using mirrors and magnifying glasses to search for hidden messages in the texts they are required to check before publication.
Editors and publishers say the additional work is slowing up the censorship process. “The censors are even checking cover pages of magazines time and again.”
One Rangoon writer said he now had to submit his manuscripts one month ahead of publication, compared to one week in the past.

2008-02-04T10:59:00.000Z

Members of the Overseas Burmese Patriots (OBP)
wait before a screening of Rambo IV in Singapore

Burmese Expats Raise Rambo Battle-cry in Singapore
By GILLIAN MURDOCH/REUTERS WRITER/SINGAPORE
Monday, February 4, 2008.

The critics may have turned up their noses at the latest Rambo offering, but for 600 Burmese nationals in Singapore, the Vietnam War veteran's single-handed demolition of swathes of the Burmese army was a huge hit.
As the closing credits rolled on Sunday on Sylvester Stallone's latest orgy of blood-letting, this time set in the jungles of the country's Karen State, whoops and cheers erupted from the block-booked audience.
For some, it was elation at seeing somebody—albeit a fictional Hollywood character— taking it to the foot-soldiers of a military regime that has ruled with an iron fist for the last 46 years.
For others, it was a painful but telling reminder of real life-and-death encounters.
"Everything is almost—80 percent—the same as what the movie showed," said 28-year-old Cinthy, a student who grew up in Karen State, where the mainly Christian people have been fighting for independence for 59 years.
"They rape the Karen people. They kill the Karen people. They just try to kill the village," she said, recalling one military incursion into her village when she was just five years old.
"My parents ran away and we all went and slept inside the jungle and bushes," she said. "Twenty years later, it's the same".
In "Rambo 4", released a week ago, an ageing John Rambo leaves his quiet retirement as a boat repair man in Bangkok to help Christian missionaries kidnapped by a battalion of Burmese soldiers in Karen State.
After the crushing of last September's monk-led protests, anti-junta activists see the movie as a rallying cry to a cause that receives little Western backing beyond words of support for detained opposition leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
"We wanted to show our unity," said Edward, a leader of the Overseas Burmese Patriots group which coordinated the movie's screening, complete with red t-shirts reading "We pursue peace, justice and democracy for Burma".
He declined to give his family name, mindful of the dim view Singapore authorities take of any political gathering of more than four people.
"The war is still a reality," Edward said. "Rambo can let the world know the military government is totally cruel."

NEWS UPDATE(FEB 03)

2008-02-03T19:56:00.000Z

RAMBO-IV (Live for nothing , die for something)

2008-02-03T13:33:00.000Z

NEWS UPDATE(FEB 02)

2008-02-02T22:07:00.001Z

2008-02-02T10:57:00.000Z

Top US Diplomat Wants International Pressure on Burma Junta
By GRANT PECK/AP WRITER/BANGKOK
Saturday, February 2, 2008.
Fresh international pressure is necessary to push Burma's military rulers toward reform because the momentum for change after last year's demonstrations has been lost, the top US diplomat in the country said Friday.
The appeal by Shari Villarosa, charge d'affaires at the US Embassy in Rangoon, followed signs that the ruling junta was again stepping up repression of dissidents.
It also came after Burma's detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi said Wednesday she was dissatisfied with the progress of her reconciliation talks with the junta, and cautioned the public to "hope for the best and prepare for the worst."
Burma's crisis attracted world attention when Buddhist monks last September began leading anti-government protests, the biggest in two decades. At least 30 people are believed to have been killed when the government suppressed the demonstrations, and thousands detained, though most have since been released.
Under pressure from UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari, the junta appointed a "Minister for Relations" to talk with Suu Kyi, but their few meetings have borne no results, and junta leader Snr-Gen Than Shwe has made no further moves toward reconciliation.
"I think everybody hoped that there was genuine will on the part of Than Shwe and his senior generals to begin a real dialogue, and what is increasingly evident is that they have no intention whatsoever in engaging in a genuine dialogue," Villarosa said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press in Bangkok.
Earlier this week, lawyers working with the pro-democracy movement said that about two dozen members of the 88 Generation Students group, whose small protests against a fuel price hike mushroomed into last September's massive demonstrations, would face trial. They are charged with making illegal statements and could face up to seven years in prison if convicted.
Last week, human rights group Amnesty International said the ruling military had continued to arrest political activists, despite its promise to the United Nations that it would halt arrests following September's demonstrations.
Amnesty International said 1,850 political prisoners were behind bars, including 96 imprisoned since early November when the government told the world body it had stopped all arrests.
Villarosa said it was crucial for Burma's fellow members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, along with its giant neighbors China and India, to push the junta to open up to dialogue and reconciliation with its opponents. The UN also needs to be involved, she said.

Bush Administration Expected to Request Boost in Burma Funding
By FOSTER KLUG/AP WRITER/WASHINGTON
Saturday, February 2, 2008.
President George W Bush on Monday is expected to propose a boost in funding for Burma in his annual budget request.
Bush will likely request nearly $16 million be targeted toward the military-led Southeast Asian country, a large jump from the nearly $5 million requested last year, according to a congressional aide familiar with the proposal.
The proposal indicates the administration wants to step up funding meant to spark change in the country after its military crushed pro-democracy protests led by students and Buddhist priests last year.
Monday's request by the Bush administration will be the start of a long budget process. The Senate and the House of Representatives must make their own recommendations on funding; negotiators from each side would then hammer out a compromise bill before sending it to the president to sign into law.
As Bush, a Republican, enters his last year in office, he faces strong opposition from the Democratic party that controls Congress. That means there is no guarantee that the budget will be funded at the levels he has requested.
The aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the request had yet to be formally released, said about $186 million would be requested for Indonesia, of which nearly $16 million would be for military aid. That's down about $4 million from the previous year's enacted level, the aide said. Military aid levels are roughly the same.
The Bush administration sees Indonesia as crucial to fighting terrorism in Southeast Asia. Last year's military aid was linked to the US Secretary of State reporting to Congress that Indonesia had accounted for past human rights violations by its military.
The United States eliminated military ties with Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, in 1999 to protest alleged rights abuses by Indonesian troops in breakaway East Timor. The ban was lifted in 2005 by the Bush administration.

1 February 2008 - DVB-TV NEWS

2008-02-01T17:42:00.000Z

2008-02-01T17:31:00.000Z

Junta Pressures Ethnic Ceasefire Groups on China Border
By SAW YAN NAING
Friday, February 1, 2008.
Burma’s regime is stepping up its efforts to persuade armed ethnic groups to become more involved in its political reform program, even as it stalls in its talks with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Senior Burmese military leaders are pressuring ethnic ceasefire groups based along the border with China to disarm and support a national referendum, which is part of the regime’s seven-point “road map” to democracy.
Recently, two senior leaders of the ruling junta, Maj-Gen Khin Aung Myint, Minister for Culture, and Lt-Gen Ye Myint, head of Military Affairs Security, visited the Burma-China border, where they held talks with Wa, Kachin, Shan and Kokang armed insurgent groups, according to Aung Kyaw Zaw, a Burmese analyst based on the Chinese border.
Lt-Gen Ye Myint has been traveling around the area since January 24, meeting with leaders of the United Wa State Army (UWSA), the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), the Shan State Army (North) and the Kokang Army.
Aung Kyaw Zaw said that the Burmese side was careful not to state its demands too strongly, but was holding informal dinner receptions at which the Burmese generals indirectly asked ethnic leaders to disarm their armies and support the junta’s referendum.
The Burmese generals were trying to persuade leaders of the border-based ceasefire groups to form political parties so they could run in future general elections, said the Burmese analyst. But the regime didn’t say when elections would be held.
There was no official reply from the ceasefire groups, according to Aung Kyaw Zaw. Among the ceasefire groups, the UWSA is the strongest; it is believed to have more than 20,000 foot soldiers. There have been persistent reports coming out of the Wa hills suggesting that the Wa leadership may not accede to Rangoon’s request to disarm the UWSA.
Meanwhile, Maj-Gen Khin Aung Myint, who is also a leading member of the regime’s “Spokes Authoritative Team,” held a meeting with Kachin leaders from the KIO. This is his second trip in recent months.
Htay Aung, an exiled Burmese researcher on military affairs, said that Khin Aung Myint, who has served in the psychological warfare department, is knowledgeable about ethnic groups and may be able to persuade the armed groups to disarm.
The regime has officially announced that the first two stages of its “seven-step road map” have been completed, leaving only five more stages to go before the country makes its transition to a “disciplined democracy”.
The next step is the drafting of a new constitution, with subsequent steps including the holding of a referendum, formation of a people’s assembly, and general elections.
Maj Sai Lao Hseng, a spokesperson for the Shan State Army (South), which continues to engage in armed conflict with the regime, said that he believed the regime would continue to push the armed groups to disarm and support a new constitution and referendum.
However, Sai Lao Hseng added that several ceasefire group leaders might reject the junta’s requests to disarm. A number of ceasefire groups have attended the regime’s National Convention, which first convened in 1993.

Think Tank Releases Recommendations on Burma
By WAI MOE
Friday, February 1, 2008.
Change will only come to Burma if influential groups in the West and Asia work closely together, according to a study released by The International Crisis Group (ICG), a Brussels-based think tank.
The report, “Burma /Myanmar: After the Crackdown,” released on January 31, suggests three elements must work in tandem, John Virgoe, ICG’s Southeast Asia director, told The Irrawaddy on Friday.
The elements include the United Nations and UN Special Envoy to Burma Ibrahim Gambari; multi-party talks with China, India and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean); and the international community, particularly Western democracies and Japan, all of whom must work together and keep the Burmese junta at the top of the international agenda.
The junta’s crackdown last year caused even Burma’s allies to recognize that change is desperately needed, according to the ICG report, which wrote:
“The military government’s response to the growing international pressure has been limited. While neither request nor threats deterred the generals from crushing the protest movement, they have tried to manage the fallout by engaging with Gambari and have taken a number of steps, in line with his requests, to ‘normalise’ the situation on the ground.”
On the pro-democracy opposition movement, the ICG said it lacks the power to challenge the military rulers, and a decisive battleground for meaningful change is more likely to exist within the elite political framework than in the streets.
The Burmese people remain committed to achieve change, and new opportunities may emerge during a gradual transition which sees the replacement of overt military rule by some sort of hybrid regime, the report suggests.
The group said targeted sanctions can be an important tool in support of diplomacy and increasing focus on sanctions is a positive.
Targeted sanctions should be gradually focused on restricting access of military, state and crony business enterprises to international banking services, including the holding of foreign bank accounts and the use of the Belgian-based SWIFT system for bank transfers. In addition, sanctions should include limiting the access of selected generals and their immediate families to personal business opportunities, heath care, shopping and foreign education for their children, including in regional countries, the report said.
“Arms embargoes, while general in nature, have elements of targeting too and should be pursued,” said ICG.
Aung Naing Oo, a Burmese analyst in Thailand, said he was disappointed with the ICG report because the report only focused on outside players. The main participants to effect the process of change are inside Burma, he said. The report made no recommendations regarding the regime and in-country opposition groups.
“ICG suggested the regional countries should be more involved in the Burma issue,” he said. “But the military junta does not care about pressure (from regional countries),” said Aung Naing Oo.
Some critics said the current ICG report has altered its stance toward Burma following the September crisis. In previous reports, the ICG took a less positive view on Western sanctions, and it supported engagement with the regime, some critics said.
Virgoe said the ICG has not changed its stand on Burma. He said that after the September crackdown, the international community has found more common ground on Burma than in the past.
“Previously I think there were really different opinions between Asean on the one hand and the West on the other hand,” he said. “But now there is more common ground. I think everybody, every country, recognizes that Burma is a serious problem—that change is needed in Burma.”

NEWS UPDATE(FEB 01)

2008-02-01T09:36:00.000Z

NEWS UPDATE(JAN 31)

2008-01-31T20:59:00.000Z

2008-01-31T16:15:00.000Z

Burmese People “Must Prepare for the Worst”

By Saw Yan Naing January 31, 2008
Burmese people must prepare themselves for the worst in their struggle for political change, several ethnic leaders and veteran politicians agreed on Thursday.
They were commenting on a statement by opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on her talks with regime mediator Aung Kyi, which she said had made no progress yet towards substantive dialogue with the junta.
Suu Kyi reported on her encounters with the regime go-between in a rare meeting on Wednesday with leaders of her National League for Democracy (NLD). NLD Spokesman Nyan Win quoted her as saying: “Let’s hope for the best and prepare for the worst.”
Cin Sian Thang, chairman of the Zomi National Congress in Rangoon told The Irrawaddy on Thursday that if the Burmese people didn’t gain what they asked for from the government, they should prepare to find out any appropriate way for change in Burma.
“We should not wait for change if we don’t get what we asked for,” he said. “We must do what we should do. We should find a potential way out.”
Cin Siang Thang said he saw no progress from the meetings between Suu Kyi and the Aung Kyi. The two have met five times since last September’s crackdown.
Cin Sian Thang said he didn’t think the Burmese government wanted to negotiate for change in Burma. The meetings between Suu Kyi and Aung Kyi had been arranged as a way of easing international pressure.
Aye Thar Aung, chairman of the Arakan League for Democracy, said: “If the junta doesn’t enhance the dialogue, the situation in the country is dangerous. In fact, the junta also doesn’t want to made dialogue. So, she [Suu Kyi] also likes to tell people to prepare for the worst while hoping for the best.”
Thakin Chan Htun, a Burmese veteran politician in Rangoon, said “the best” would be a dialogue between Suu Kyi and junta leader Snr-Gen Than Shwe. “The worst” could mean a heavy crackdown on political activists and opposition groups, he said.
Unless a dialogue came about between Suu Kyi and Than Shwe, Burmese people should prepare for the worst, Thakin Chan Htun said.
“She [Suu Kyi] is detained. She couldn’t do anything. So, she also wants to warn Burmese people to dare to take part in movements such as mass protests when facing the worst situation.”

Prepare for the Worst, Not the Best

By The Irrawaddy January 31, 2008
On Wednesday, we heard clearly the frustration felt by Burma's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi about the way her talks with the regime’s mediator are going.
Suu Kyi was allowed to meet with senior members of her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), for about 90 minutes. After the meeting, the party’s spokesman, Nyan Win, quoted her as saying: “Let’s hope for the best and prepare for the worst."
The NLD spokesman said Suu Kyi was particularly frustrated at the government's refusal to set a time frame for reforms and at the junta's current position that political change should wait until the so-called road map to democracy is completed.
It was easy to predict that junta-sponsored rounds of talks would end up with this kind of result. Many observers believed the talks were meaningless, and furthermore that this is what the military intended—a pretence of goodwill to ease the political pressure from inside the country and abroad.
In September last year, the junta brutally suppressed the biggest pro-democracy protests in two decades. Then, the junta appointed Labor Minister Aung Kyi as a "relations minister" to represent the military government in preliminary talks with the Nobel Peace Prize winner, following repeated calls for a dialogue by the September protesters and the international community.
Instead of heeding the frustration and anger of the pro-democracy activists, the junta reacted by raiding homes, arresting opposition members and hunting down those who fled. Latest reports say the authorities have charged several political prisoners who took part in the September uprising and that some were tortured and beaten while in police custody.
Although UN Special Envoy Ibrahim Gambari has toured extensively in the region in an attempt to push Burma's neighbors to help achieve national reconciliation in Burma, the process is going nowhere. Even a request by Burma's closest ally, China, to allow Gambari to return to Burma was met with prevarication by the hard-headed Burmese generals.
After years of disappointment and sacrifice, patience is running out with the Burmese military government and its foot-dragging over moves toward democratization. All involved in the Burma issue are aware that if the Burmese regime continues with its present attitude and policy, havoc could result.
Britain's ambassador to Burma has said the mood there is angry and he has predicted more demonstrations. Some observers think they may erupt in August, coinciding both with the 20th anniversary of the 1988 student-led uprising and with the opening of the Olympic Games in Beijing.

Unimportant Topics Take Up All the Time,
Says Suu Kyi

By Wai Moe January 31, 2008
In the reconciliation talks between Burma’s democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the junta’s liaison officer, Aung Kyi, most of the time is taken up on trivial subjects, according to sources in the National League of Democracy.
Senior members of the NLD who asked for anonymity told The Irrawaddy on Thursday that sometimes an hour- long meeting is filled up with explanations and questions, such as “What is cooperation?” and “What is collaboration?” by the junta liaison officer, Suu Kyi told a group of NLD members whom she met with on Wednesday just prior to her fifth meeting with Aung Kyi.
Suu Kyi said she has spoken to Aung Kyi about important issues, and he replies that he will report her remarks to top officials and then a month goes by with no discussions, NLD sources said.
Suu Kyi told her colleagues that Aung Kyi told her to endorse the regime’s “seven-step road map” to democracy because it’s the foundation of the junta’s plan for the country.
Instead, Suu Kyi suggested an inclusive reconciliation process that includes participation by ethnic group leaders in any talks about the country’s future.
“She [Suu Kyi] is not pleased with the talks,” said an NLD member. “She does not mean the process is hopeless, but it is being drawn out and prolonged.”
Suu Kyi’s request to meet with the head of the military junta, Snr-Gen Than Shwe, has received no response from the junta, and the talks are proceeding without a time frame.
Suu Kyi said she does not want to give false hope to the people of Burma, but in such conditions something positive could happen.
On Wednesday, she said she recalled her father Aung San’s famous remark before he held talks with the British government in London during the pre-independence period, “Let’s hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.”
A veteran journalist in Rangoon, Sein Hla Oo, commenting on the talks, said, “She [Suu Kyi] is not satisfied with the process. She thinks meaningful dialogue is very important for the country, but others think it is not important.”
Suu Kyi reportedly told her NLD colleagues to move forward without her, said the source. Sometimes she can lead the party; sometimes she will follow others’ leadership within the party, he said.
She suggested that sometimes the party needs to push and sometime it needs to pull, and if it is necessary, everyone needs to give up everything, he said.
He said she asked authorities to allow NLD deputy leader Tin Oo to participate in the meeting on Wednesday, but the authorities rejected the proposal.

2008-01-31T16:08:00.001Z

Insein jail on the outskirts of Rangoon [File: EPA]

Big Rise in Number of Burma’s Political Prisoners

By Shah Paung January 31, 2008
The number of political prisoners behind bars in Burma increased last year to at least 1,864, according to the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma).
A statement issued on Thursday said the figure—an increase of 706 over the 2006 total—did not include all those arrested during and after the September demonstrations.
The AAPP drew particular attention to the regime’s practice of arresting relative of wanted political activists as a way of forcing them to give themselves up.
Five such cases, involving eight relatives of wanted activists, were documented by the AAPP.
The arrested relatives were identified as: the mother and mother-in-law of Thet Thet Aung; the wife of Nyein Thit, a poet and former political prisoner; Thein Aye, a friend of Di Nyein Lin, leader of the All Burma Federation of Student’s Union; Peter and Nu Nu Swe, parents of Si Thu Maung; and the father and brother of U Gambira, a leader of the All Burma Monks Alliance.
Nyein Thit’s wife Khin Marlar and U Gambira’s father, Min Lwin, had subsequently been released.
The AAPP charged that the political prisoners were not getting enough food or fresh drinking water. They were not being provided with bedding and blankets and were being kept in overcrowded and poorly ventilated facilities.
“Detainees were tortured by being forced to lie face down on the ground while answering questions,” the AAPP said. “In one case, two detainees were made to slap each other’s face repeatedly both as a means of humiliation and torture.”
Medical care was also being denied, claimed the AAPP—saying it had documented the deaths of at least 30 prisoners in Taungoo prison alone. “Many died as a result of tuberculosis or HIV/AIDS acquired in the prison.”
AAPP said four political prisoners were currently in solitary confinement in Insein Prison. Their families reported that they had been condemned to solitary confinement after a request for proper medical care had been sent to junta leader Snr-Gen Than Shwe, the BBC Burmese Service reported.

30 January 2008 - DVB-TV NEWS

2008-01-30T20:05:00.000Z

NO FEAR - THE TIGER's TOOTHLESS

2008-01-30T19:57:00.000Z

NEWS UPDATE(JAN 30)

2008-01-30T19:48:00.000Z

2008-01-30T15:12:00.000Z

Suu Kyi ‘Not Satisfied’ in Talks with Junta

By Wai Moe January 30, 2008
Burma’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was allowed to meet with senior members of her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), for about 90 minutes on Wednesday.
After the meeting, the party’s spokesperson, Nyan Win, told reporters that Suu Kyi was “not satisfied” with her on-going talks with the junta.
“Mainly because there is no time frame,” Nyan Win quoted her as saying.
She said, “Let’s hope for the best and prepare for the worst,” according to Nyan Win.
Nyan Win said Suu Kyi has told the junta’s liaison official that any talks must include representatives of the ethnic groups.
Following her talk with NLD members, the junta’s liaison officer Aung Kyi, and Suu Kyi met again on Wednesday, the fifth time since the September mass uprising.
The junta appointed Labor Minister Aung Kyi as a "relations minister" to represent the military government in preliminary talks with the Nobel Peace Prize winner, following repeated calls for a dialogue by the international community.
Meanwhile, the United States condemned the junta’s decision to charge 10 pro-democracy activists for their activities in the September protests. The US State Department reiterated its call for the military government to release all political prisoners, including democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.
On Tuesday, the European Union special envoy to Burma, Piero Fassino, said at a joint press conference with outgoing Thai Foreign Minister Nitya Pibulsonggram in Bangkok that the EU wants to work with Thailand to promote a positive solution in Burma. Fassino said he was working with the UN special envoy to Burma, Ibrahim Gambari.
Gambari arrived in India on Tuesday, where he was scheduled to consult with Indian officials on ways to resolve the Burma issue. His request to return to Burma has been delayed by the regime until April.

A Fight for Dignity

By Aung Zaw January 30, 2008
I recently met a group of influential monks from Burma. I immediately asked them about the monk-led uprising in September.
One respected monk said the demonstrations were not entirely about the hike in fuel prices or the economic hardships. It was also not only about the fight for the democracy. There was one underlying cause that pushed the people to take to the streets, he said.
“It was the fight for dignity. People want to restore the dignity we have lost,” he said.
Under the military regime, the country is demoralized and lacks respect in the eyes of the international community, he said.
The monk continued, “I don’t think our problem is about the economy and poverty alone. I think many people in Burma have lost their dignity and self-respect. Burma is becoming a morally bankrupt society. It is a very dangerous trend.”
I could not agree more. Burma could have been one of Asia’s economic tigers in the 1950s and 1960s, but its leaders didn’t take advantage of the opportunities.
After regaining independence under the late Prime Minister U Nu, the country lost its way. U Nu lacked a clear vision and was a weak leader.
Then strongman Gen Ne Win, a member of the Thirty Comrades who were trained by the Japanese, entered the political scene. Compared to U Nu, Ne Win was an outgoing and charismatic leader, but he had no interest in seeing Burma prosper and become a part of the global community. With the support of the army, he quelled the rebels and insurgents in the mountains. But then, he put Burma under lock and key. It was a nation cut off from the rest of the world.
Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s elder statesman, met with Ne Win several times and encouraged Ne Win and his cabinet members to open up the country and develop tourism. Ne Win was not interested.
And then events began to take control. Ne Win once told journalists that ruling the country was like catching hold of a tiger’s tail. There was nothing he could do but hang on to it. Under Ne Win, Burma became a failed state.
Lee continued to engage other military leaders, who were protégés of Ne Win.
After the Western economic sanctions and visa bans imposed by the United States and the European Union, Singapore has remained a destination for Burmese generals and their family members. But I wonder what do the generals learn from the city-state?
Lee continued to urge the leaders to open up the country. Among them, he said, he was impressed by Gen Khin Nyunt, the former intelligence chief.
“He's the most intelligent of the lot,” Lee once said of Khin Nyunt, who was purged in October 2004 and is now under house arrest serving a 44-year suspended prison sentence.
Previously, Singapore invested millions of dollars into Burma’s tourism industry, but the hotels and resorts never really prospered and tourism has floundered.
Recently, Lee changed his tune about the generals, speaking out more honestly. After the crackdown in September, he said, “These are rather dumb generals when it comes to the economy.”
“How can they so mismanage the economy and reach this stage when the country has so many natural resources?”
That question is constantly asked by Burmese at home and abroad.
At a recent dinner hosted by the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore, Lee said the Burmese generals are "people with very fixated minds—quite convinced that they will have the natural resources to weather any sanctions."
On the regime’s decision to build a new capital in Pyinmana, Lee said, "I mean, [building a] new capital from ground zero? I ask myself, what rational government would do this?"
Lee predicted, “We will see how it is, but whatever it is, I do not believe that they can survive indefinitely.”
Many Burmese now living and working in Singapore got the message, but not Snr-Gen Than Shwe and his junta.
The Burmese community in Singapore may not like Singapore’s draconian laws and authoritarian government, but they admire the Lion City’s economic success.
It is quite common to hear Burmese say that Singapore is not a democracy, but they would like Burmese leaders to develop an open market economic policy like Singapore.
If Burma could achieve economic success like its neighbors Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia, the generals might not need to lock up Aung San Suu Kyi and dissident leaders anymore. But Than Shwe is no Lee Kuan Yew.
Than Shwe, officially at age 75, has no interest in seeing Burma become an economic tiger. It is too late for him to change his direction. He too has caught hold of a tiger’s tail and will hang on to it to the end.
Than Shwe doesn’t trust the Burmese people, and he cares nothing about their dignity.

UN Report Accuses Regime,

Armed Ethnic Groups of Recruiting Children

By Lalit K Jha/United Nations January 30, 2008
A United Nations report released on Tuesday accused the Burmese armed forces, the country’s Tatmadaw, and armed ethnic groups of recruiting children to serve as soldiers.
The groups named in the report are the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), Karen National Union-Karen National Liberation Army Peace Council; Kachin Independence Army (KIA); Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), Karenni Army (KA), Karenni National People’s Liberation Front (KNPLF), Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army and Shan State Army-South (SSA-S).
This is more than double the number of armed ethnic groups named in last year’s “Children and Armed Conflict” report, which listed only three—the KNLA, KA and United Wa State Army.
In the 45-page report, submitted to the UN Security Council and General Assembly, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon alleged that the Burmese armed forces have also been responsible for killing and maiming children and denying humanitarian access.
Besides Burma, the report said child soldiers were being recruited in recruitment in Afghanistan, Burundi, Chad, the Central African Republic, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nepal, the Philippines, Somalia, Sudan, Sri Lanka and Uganda.
The report recommended the use of a range of measures, including bans on military aid and travel restrictions, against parties to armed conflict who continued to systematically commit grave violations against children.
It also urged the Security Council to refer violations against children in armed conflict to the International Criminal Court.
The report said that, despite regime denials, reliable reports from UN partners indicate that attempts to recruit children forcibly for Tatmadaw service were still occurring. “It is difficult to systematically verify the extent of recruitment or the number of children in military camps owing to access limitations,” it added.
The report said the UN had not received any reports of new recruitment of children by the KNLA, KA or KNPP in the period under review.
However, the limitations imposed by the junta on UN access to areas of operations and on dialogue with the KNLA and KA hampered efforts to verify whether those groups had in fact stopped recruiting children.
Reports had been received indicating that a breakaway faction of the KNU, the KNU-KNLA Peace Council, had recruited children from the Mae La refugee camp and villages in the border areas.
“Sources suggest that several boys were deceived into crossing the border by promises of pay and participation in celebrations but were subsequently coerced into joining the armed group,” the report said. “While most of the children have returned, four boys are reportedly still missing. It is not known whether the KNU-KNLA Peace Council continues recruitment, and the UN has not been able to verify the reports of recruitment.”
Reports had been received of a “one child per family” recruitment policy by the KIA. In early 2007, the UN verified a report of a 15-year-old girl recruited by the KIA when she returned to her home village from school in Myitkyina, Kachin State. “To date, the girl remains with KIA,” the report said.
Eyewitness accounts had been received of children serving with the United Wa State Army in northern Shan State, despite the UWSA’s recent statement to the UN special representative that no children had been recruited since the ceasefire agreement reached by the group with the Burmese regime.
“There are reports of Shan State Army-South recruiting children as part of a new mandatory recruitment policy,” the report said. “Children are also recruited and used by Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (Kokang) in northern Shan State.”
Information had also been received that children were serving with the KNPLF and DKBA. “However, in-depth monitoring is hampered by access limitations to areas of operations of these groups,” the report said.
Meanwhile Maj-Gen Thura Myint Aung, who heads a panel charged with ending the practice of forcing minors into the army, told that from 2002 to 2007, officials had returned 792 children from the military to their parents.
The junta's mouthpiece New Light of Myanmar quoted him as saying the authorities had "taken action" against 43 military personnel, including some officers. The paper, however, gave no details on the punishments.

Junta Charges More Political Prisoners,

Others Seriously ill

By Saw Yan Naing January 30, 2008
Burmese authorities have charged seven more political prisoners who took part in the September uprising, including prominent activist Htay Kywe, Su Su Nway and Mie Mie, say sources in Rangoon.
Htay Kywe and Mie Mie are leading members of the 88 Generation Students group.
Su Su Nway won the John Humphrey Freedom Award and is a youth member of the National League for Democracy.
Win Maung, the father of Pyone Cho, an 88 Generation Students group member who recently visited Insein Prison, told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday that Htay Kywe and Mie Mie were charged under section 17/20 of Burma’s Printing and Publishing Act.
Su Su Nway was reportedly charged under article 124, 505 and 125 of the penal code. Win Maung said he could not identify the names of all seven activists who were charged.
According to Aung Thein, a lawyer in Rangoon, article 505 concerns a threat to the government’s stability—a charge that could result in three years imprisonment; article 124 reportedly relates to acts that could destabilize the government and could result in life imprisonment.
Su Su Nway is scheduled to go on trial on February 6 in Rangoon’s Bahan Township, Win Maung said.
A fourth political prisoner, pro-democracy activist Win Maw, was charged under article 5 (J)—which involves a threat to the security or stability of the country, which could lead to seven years imprisonment.
A popular Burmese musician, Win Maw was arrested in November along with two friends, Myat San and Aung Aung, as they sat in a Rangoon teashop.
Win Maw, the lead guitarist in the Shwe Thansin group, one of Burma’s top bands in the 1990s, was sentenced in 1997 to seven years imprisonment for writing songs in support of Burma’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. He was released in 2003.
Meanwhile, Myo Yan Naung Thein, a member of 88 Generation Students who was arrested in December, is now in poor health, according to his brother, Myo Hteik, who recently visited him in Insein Prison.
“Someone must help him when he tries to walk,” he said. “He can’t move his body on the left side. I am really worried about his health. I want the authorities to give him a chance to get a medical checkup in a hospital outside of the prison.”
According to reports, Myo Yan Naung Thein was tortured and beaten when he was held in the interrogation center for one week. In 1996, he was imprisoned for seven years.
Meanwhile, other political prisoners are in poor health, according to NLD spokesman Nyan Win.
They include Win Mya Mya, an organizer of the Mandalay branch of the NLD; Than Lwin, the vice-chairman of the NLD’s Mandalay Division; and Shwe Maung, an NLD member. All are detained in Mandalay Prison.
According to London-based Amnesty International, some 1,850 political prisoners are currently held in Burmese prisons, and 96 persons remain unaccounted for following the September demonstrations. An estimated 700 political activists were arrested in September 2007.

29 January 2008 - DVB-TV NEWS

2008-01-29T20:38:00.000Z

NEWS UPDATE(JAN 29)

2008-01-29T20:18:00.000Z

2008-01-29T20:07:00.000Z

Offensive Really Does Describe Latest Anti-Regime Campaign

By Violet Cho January 29, 2008
Burma’s top general on parade—but with his pants around his knees. Or inspecting his troops from the back of a hearse. Or hobnobbing with Osama Bin Laden. These are some of the satirical pictures launched on the Internet in a new offensive against the regime.
And this campaign is truly offensive—one picture superimposes the face of the regime leader, Snr-Gen Than Shwe, on the amply-endowed body of a lightly-clad bimbo, her legs spread for the camera.
The pictures are the work of an unknown satirist who goes by the name of Mr Creator. He’s certainly creating fun and havoc in Burma, where copies of the cartoons downloaded from the Internet are clandestinely changing hands in tea shops and any place where regime critics gather.
“This is real psychological warfare,” grinned one Rangoon resident. “Mr Creator should be encouraged to continue his work.”
“This kind of satire is a really practical way to get the message across,” said one young man as he distributed copies of the cartoons.
Mr Creator is also up with the news—one picture has him embracing a giant bottle of rum next to a poster advertising the latest Rambo film, which is set mostly in Burma.
Than Shwe is identified as “Rum Bo”—“rum” standing for alcohol and “bo” meaning bully. Together, they stand as a metaphor for Than Shwe.
Mr Creator’s satirical sally follows a similar Internet poster campaign this month named Chee Lay Chee & Kwey Young Sone, after the a-nyeint traditional comedy troupe Thee Lay Thee & Say Young Son.
The Burmese word Chee can mean something rather disgusting. Lay means four. Put the words together and add mug shots of the four generals who rule Burma and what do you have? Four disgusting objects. Complicated, scatological—but clever.

Burmese Generals Probably Happy with Thailand’s New Government

By Kyaw Zwa Moe January 29, 2008
Burma’s ruling generals in the isolated capital of Naypyidaw are probably smiling over the election of Thailand’s 25th prime minister on Monday.
The junta no doubt views the new prime minister, Samak Sundaravej, as a proxy for deposed Prime Minister Thaksin Sinawatra, as does most of the Thai public.
Thaksin, who makes many of the decisions for the newly formed government, was widely regarded as a Burma supporter who saw the country as a potential business partner.
But in terms of the two countries political systems, Burma and Thailand are no longer the same, following Thailand’s recent democratic election and the end of rule for Thailand’s military junta, which governed the country for more than one year.
From September 2006 until December 2008, the two governments were the same—generals ruled.
Thailand’s new Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej is the ostensible leader of the People Power Party. He admitted to being a “proxy” for Thaksin, who is currently residing in exile in Hong Kong. Samak was nominated by Thaksin to lead the People Power Party, which was founded after Thaksin’s Thai Rak Thai Party was dissolved by Thailand’s coup leaders.
Burmese generals probably anticipate much smoother—and more supportive—relations with Thailand’s new government.
Thaksin was a friend of Burma’s military regime when he was prime minister from 2001 to 2006. He was criticized for courting the junta by supporting business concessions and defending the military leaders.
Thailand is one of Burma’s biggest investors, and state-owned industries such as PTT and EGAT (the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand) are still the largest purchaser of gas from Burma, contributing almost US $2 billion a year to the military regime.
Business relations under Thaksin’s government were better than ever for the Burmese government. In 2003, Shin Corp, the telecom company once owned by Thaksin’s family, signed a deal with Bagan Cybertech, the Burmese internet service provider, owned by Ye Naing Win, the son of the deposed Prime Minister Gen Khin Nyunt.
In 2004, Thaksin traveled to the ancient capital of Pagan, Burma, to sell his “Economic Cooperation Strategy,” and he promised the Burmese junta aid and support worth $45 million.
In December 2003, Thaksin’s government hosted the “Bangkok Process” to advance democracy in Burma. In addition to two foreign ministers from the host country and Burma, the meeting included representatives from Australia, Austria, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan and Singapore. The meeting yielded nothing even though Thai Foreign Minister Surakiat Sathirathai heralded it a “breakthrough.”
After the junta’s harsh crack down on the monk-led demonstrations last September, the generals have faced growing international pressure. Even the regime’s traditional supporters such as China, India and members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations have become more vocally critical even as they stick to their noninterference policies, saying Burmese politics is an “internal affair.” Burma needs more friends to support its policies internationally. But the generals are always skeptical and reserved when they deal with foreign countries. They like to say they have no “always friends” or “always enemies.” They focus on their own interest based on the present.
However, it’s likely they see the new Thai government as an old friend. And they will probably benefit from it.

28 January 2008 - DVB-TV NEWS

2008-01-29T09:29:00.000Z

27.01.2008 Music prg (Jimmy Jack) DVB-TV NEWS

2008-01-28T18:43:00.000Z

2008-01-28T18:32:00.000Z

Novice monks stand with their alms bowls in Rangoon [Photo: Reuters]
Three Monks Died in Demonstrations,
Says Sanga Group

By Shah Paung January 28, 2008
Three monks died in last September’s demonstrations and nine are still missing, according to the Alliance of All Burma Buddhist Monks (AABBM).
Only one of the dead monks was identified—U Thilavantha, of Yuzana Kyaunghtai Monastery, Myitkyina, capital of Kachin State. The other two, unidentified monks, were from Ngwe Kyar Yan monastery in Rangoon’s South Okkalapa Township and Thar Du Monastery in Rangoon’s Kyeemyindine Township.
U Thilavantha was a teacher at the Myitkina monastery, which was raided by security forces on September 25. He was beaten and tortured and died in Myitkyina Hospital
The Alliance said 54 monks and seven nuns were arrested by Burmese authorities during last September’s demonstrations. The list of those killed, missing or arrested is not complete, however, the Alliance stressed.
Figures collated by the exile-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma) state that 95 monks and 10 nuns were arrested.
During September’s demonstrations, more than 50 monasteries across the country were raided and searched by Burmese troops and security forces, who often plundered the premises. Two Rangoon monasteries were closed down, the Alliance said.
Apart for the arrests, about 10 monks were dismissed from their university studies. Some 15 fled the country.
One of the arrested monks, 29-year-old U Gambira, a leader of the AABBM group, has been charged with high treason, a capital offence carrying the death sentence or life imprisonment. He was seized from his hiding place in Kyaukse, central Burma, in early November.

Anti-regime Poster Campaign in Arakan State

By Saw Yan Naing January 28, 2008
Despite tightened security, dissident activists in Arakan State’s Taunggok Township launched an anti-government poster campaign early on Monday, according to local sources.
A pro-democracy activist told The Irrawaddy that the campaigners affixed posters in the city’s downtown hospitals, markets and crowded places, calling for the release of all political prisoners, Buddhist monks and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
The posters also urged the military junta to stop arresting dissidents and to start a dialogue with opposition groups for national reconciliation in Burma, according to the activist. They also demanded respect for human rights.
The authorities were now busy removing the posters, the activist said.
The poster campaign was launched despite the presence over the past week of about 30 armed security guards around pagodas and markets.
Moe Naing Soe, a member of the National League for Democracy, said security forces had also been reinforced near highways and city tea shops.
Uniformed police and security forces equipped with batons and other weapons were also being beefed up in Sittwe, capital of Arakan State, a local resident reported. The security presence was particularly strong around the city’s monasteries.
Thousands of Buddhist monks demonstrated in Sittwe in September against the sharp increases in the price of fuel and other commodities. Two men arrested in Taunggok Township on January 22 for holding a demonstration calling for democracy and the release of Suu Kyi will go on trial on February 5, local sources said. The two were identified as Kalar Shwe, aka Than Htay, and Zaw Naing.

NEWS UPDATE(JAN 26)

2008-01-26T19:51:00.000Z

2008-01-26T15:14:00.000Z

Snr-Gen Than Shwe salutes the troops in Naypyidaw on

Armed Forces Day [Photo: AFP]

Burma Under Siege

By Min Zin January 26, 2008
After the September uprising, the Burmese junta regained control over opposition groups and activists, but whether it achieved a stronger strategic position remains doubtful.
A series of bomb blasts in the past two weeks demonstrates one of two things: the security issue is still potentially troublesome for the military or, if opposition charges are true, the junta itself was the source of the bomb blasts, which can be used to blame powerful, disruptive organizations.
There were four explosions within one week, killing at least three civilians and injuring five others. The first blast occurred on January 11 at the railway station serving the country's capital, Naypyidaw. It was the first incident of a bombing in the new capital.
As the bombs were going off, the regime and ethnic, armed opposition groups traded allegations.
The junta accused the Karen National Union (KNU) and an unspecified "foreign organization" of sending "terrorist saboteurs with explosives across the border to perpetrate destructive acts inside the country." Many observers believe the "foreign organization" was a reference to the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
"They are not making this allegation lightly," said a well-informed source inside Burma. "No matter whether the allegation is true or not, it’s a well-calculated charge that is being interpreted within the military establishment in the context of U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman's recent call for the US to use its military capabilities in Burma."
The influential senator wrote an opinion piece in October 2007, suggesting the Bush administration should actively investigate US military and intelligence capabilities could be used to put additional pressure on the regime. Lieberman said, "We should be examining how the junta's ability to command and control its forces throughout the country might itself be disrupted."
But opposition groups and the media dismissed the accusation of a "foreign organization" involvement as a ridiculous charge. The KNU also denied carrying out any attacks targeting civilians.
The opposition speculated that the regime itself could be behind the bombings in the hope of raising a perception of threat against the military, offering an excuse to continue its crack down against known democracy activists and the KNU.
Some exiled Burmese analysts even point to bitter military intelligence members who were purged in 2004 for orchestrating the bombings. Theories abound.
Meanwhile, security has been increased in Rangoon, Pegu and other major cities. Local authorities in some cities even reportedly detained and questioned residents who had recently returned from Thailand after working there as migrants.
In fact, the bombings underscore the vulnerability of the junta's leadership, no matter the source.
Even if the regime uses the bombings as a justification to continue its crackdown against opposition groups, it underscores its fear of the opposition. If the bombings were self-inflicted and meant to shore up unity within the Tatmadaw (armed forces), it’s a sign the junta is unsure of the loyalty of officers and soldiers
"It is less likely that the junta orchestrated the recent explosions," said Win Min, a Burmese analyst who studies civil-military relations in Burma. "I don't think the military would stage an attack in Naypyidaw, the capital they extol and take pride in. In fact, it is not necessary for them to use bombings to justify their crackdowns on the oppositions."
In fact, since 1988 the military’s image, in the eyes of the domestic public as well as abroad, has descended to rock bottom, while the opposition, including the armed ethnic groups, is seen as democratic freedom fighters.
The September demonstrations again allowed Burmese society to witness mindless killing and brutality directed against Buddhist monks and civilians. As result, the morale of the military, including some senior officers, is at its lowest ebb in years.
Moreover, the generals have pushed the limit of the international community including their regional supporters.
Under the current circumstances, the last thing the generals want is to be seen as weak.
An unfortunate consequence of this deep sense of vulnerability is that it hardens Snr-Gen Than Shwe's thinking. Under the spell of a bunker mentality, the military leadership will continue to dig in their heels and new reforms are less likely.
Than Shwe's regime is now determined to entrench its power in non-negotiable terms.

Weekly Business Round-up

(January, 26, 2008)

By William Boot/ Bangkok January 26, 2008
Hundreds Face Eviction in Kachin State Over Chinese Dam
Burmese regime-friendly conglomerate Asia World is forcing many hundreds of villagers in northern Burma to abandon their homes and resettle elsewhere as it prepares to build a hydroelectric system at Chibwe on the May Kha River.
The project will force residents of the Washapa and Nyawngmawpa valleys to move, says a report by the Kachin News Group.
Asia World is a contractor for Chinese state companies developing the hydro scheme, which pump most of the ensuing electricity into China’s energy-hungry Yunnan province.
The KNG says Chinese engineers have already been seen in the area.
The Chibwe scheme will reportedly be big enough to have a generating capacity of 2,000 megawatts—more than Burma’s entire current output for domestic consumption.
But the Chibwe dam will by no means be the biggest hydroelectric project in Burma.
It is only one of several planned by China, via its state China Power Investment Corporation, with Burmese government support to develop electricity generation for Yunnan rather than equally energy-hungry Burma.
India, China Planning Transit Routes through Burma
India and China are pushing the ruling military junta to open up Burma with new road and rail routes.
However, the proposed west-east and south-north infrastructures may well be little more than transit routes to ferry essential supplies into China and to improve India’s trade with Southeast Asia, say analysts.
“Several Burmese state agencies are working with the Chinese on possible road and rail links from the planned deep sea port on the central Burmese coast at Kyauk Phyu,” said energy commodities consultant Collin Reynolds in Bangkok.
“These are seen as complimentary to an oil pipeline which is almost certain to be laid between the port and Kunming in China’s neighboring Yunnan province,” he said.
The oil will be transshipped from tankers docking at the port from the Middle East and northwest Africa where China is developing oil sources.
A pipeline will also run from the coast, around Sittwe, to move gas from the Shwe offshore field into Yunnan and beyond.
At the same time, India is using its increasing influence in Naypyidaw to persuade the Burmese generals to permit road and rail transit links into Southwest China and Southeast Asia generally.
The Times of India newspaper this week quoted Indian transport and commerce ministry officials saying Burma was essential for its ambitions to develop its sector of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for the Asia Pacific proposed Asian Highway.
Car Maker Skoda Eyes Burma
German-owned car maker Skoda has its sights on a Burma and several other potential new markets in its plans to establish a regional manufacturing base in India.
Skoda announced a program to produce up to 50,000 low-priced cars a year in India.
Officials of the Czech Republic-based manufacturer told India’s Economic Times it intended to move from a current small assembly operation to full local production by 2010.
In addition to the mushrooming Indian market, Skoda also planned to sell vehicles in Burma, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka.
“We will be tapping the neighboring markets to sell our excess production,” Skoda marketing executive Thomas Kuehl told the newspaper.
Burma State Airline Plans New Service to India
Burma’s state national airline says it will introduce a new service to India, underlining growing relations between the Burmese military regime and its giant western neighbor.
Myanmar Airways International said the new service would begin later this year, but gave no timetable or destinations.
MAI resumed services to Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand earlier this month after suspending international flights for about three months for what the airline called “technical reasons.”
The suspension of flights followed an international outcry over the Burmese junta’s crackdown on unarmed demonstrators calling for social and economic reforms in the wake of rising fuel prices.
New Delhi has come under pressure from the United States, the European Union and other Western governments to use its influence to persuade the Burmese leaders to introduce democratic reforms.
But India, like China, considers engagement with Burma as the best way forward, not economic and political isolation. Many international air services with Burma were curbed after the military crackdown, in part because foreign tourists canceled travel plans.
But MAI says it now plans to expand. “More flights are being planned to new destinations within Asia,” said Managing Director Aung Gyi on the airline’s website.

25 January 2008 - DVB-TV NEWS

2008-01-25T20:34:00.000Z

NEWS UPDATE(JAN 25)

2008-01-25T20:22:00.000Z

2008-01-25T20:10:00.000Z

Rambo’s Burma Mission Fails to Impress One LA Film Reviewer

By David Germain/AP Writer/Los Angeles January 25, 2008

Sylvester Stallone insisted he would only do another "Rambo" movie if it was about the human condition.
He stuck to his guns. Chapter 4, simply titled "Rambo," is about the condition of humans—after they've been blown apart by bombs, land mines and projectiles fired from the biggest, loudest firearms you may ever encounter on screen.
A box-office and critical joke for years with a string of absurd movies, Stallone regained a lot of goodwill with fans on "Rocky Balboa," a 2006 resurrection of his most famous character that proved an unlikely commercial success and also earned the respect of many reviewers.
"Rocky Balboa" got back to the core of the lovable goof known as the Italian Stallion, evoking a lot of the charm of the original "Rocky" and rinsing out some of the bad taste left by the increasingly caricatured sequels.
Co-written and directed by Stallone, "Rambo" is sickening, almost degenerate, in its savagery. Any hope that it might redeem the franchise the way "Rocky Balboa" did vanishes about the time a Burmese soldier bayonets the belly of a child during one of the movie's early sequences of utter carnage.
"First Blood," which introduced Stallone's Vietnam vet John Rambo, was silly in its relentless one-man-army action. But that 1982 flick at least brushed up against relevant questions about how a nation welcomes back the killing machines it creates to do its dirty work without figuring out some way to flip the off switch.
There never has been much story to the "Rambo" movies, whose last installment came in 1988. The latest "Rambo" has a thin setup—Stallone's stoic soldier living out his life as a boatman and snake-catcher in Thailand where he's approached by American missionaries (Julie Benz and Paul Schulze among them) to ferry the group upriver to help villagers endangered by civil war in Burma.
Rambo reluctantly agrees, then later finds himself joining a team of mercenaries hired by the congregation back home to find out what happened to the missionaries after the village they'd been working in is destroyed by the army.
He didn't ask for it, he didn't want it (and neither did we), but Rambo once again becomes an unstoppable demon of death as he tears through the jungle slaughtering bad guys with bow and arrow, his bare hands in one particularly bloody moment, and a gun that could bring down a T-Rex dinosaur.
The body count is phenomenal, and Stallone's effects team at least deserves credit for the twisted skill with which they create new and gruesome ways to show bodies being atomized amid the explosions and gunfire.
It's a true one-note performance for Stallone, whose Rambo is chided by one of the mercenaries for his "thousand-yard stare." But that thousand-yard stare is all Stallone musters as he mumbles his way through such fortune-cookie justifications for wholesale violence as "When you're pushed, killing's as easy as breathing" and "Live for nothing or die for something."
At least the movie is short, and in the few quiet moments, sparks of personality emerge from Matthew Marsden, Graham McTavish, singer Jake La Botz and others playing the mercenaries who hitch their wagon to Rambo.
The movie might satisfy bloodthirsty action fans, but for most people, this is one Stallone do-over we could have done without.
"Rambo," a Lionsgate release, runs 93 minutes. One and a half stars out of four.

2008-01-25T20:04:00.000Z

After “Rambo,” the “Lady”—

Hollywood Discovers Burma

By Yeni January 25, 2008
The fourth in a series of war veteran “Rambo” films, featuring Hollywood's mega-star Sylvester Stallone as a 61-year-old who heads into the Burmese jungle to rescue abducted Western missionaries, has its world premiere on Friday.
Many Burmese democracy activists believe this is a good time to release the film, four months after the September pro-democracy protests in Burma and the subsequent vicious military crackdown made international headlines.
Although the character of Rambo is essentially apolitical and not known as a subject of intellectual interest, many Burmese will watch the movie, which is expected to direct wide attention again to the Burma issue.
Burmese inside the country will be looking for clandestine copies of the film. Burmese youngsters are bound too enjoy the movie and will be emulating Rambo and his feats. Several Hollywood celebrities have recently shown interest in the Burma crisis and helped increase awareness of the situation. Burma is now a hot Hollywood property, figuring for the second time in less than two years in action movies with Burmese settings. In the first, “Stealth”, a fictitious air raid is made on a terrorist cell in Rangoon.
Rambo deserves thanks for attracting world attention to Burma's current plight under the cruel oppression of the military junta. But while the film remains true to Hollywood tradition and has a happy ending, the reality in Burma has so such outcome.
Meanwhile, the leading US entertainment magazine, Variety, recently reported that the life of Burmese democracy icon and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi will be the subject of a new movie, titled “The Lady.”
Giuseppe Tornatore, director of the Oscar-winning Italian film “Nuovo cinema Paradiso,” plans to make “The Lady” with Japanese producer Naofumi Okamoto. Production is set to begin later this year.
According to the Variety report, “The Lady” will cover the period from Suu Kyi’s return to Burma in 1988, when she was 43, to the present day, and Okamoto is to produce the US $30 million project alongside Avi Arad, Steven Paul and Benedict Carver of Los Angeles-based Crystal Sky Pictures, which will finance the film.
Arad, best known for movies based on Marvel Comics superheroes such as Spider-Man and X-Men, told Variety: "At first I thought it wasn't my kind of movie, but then I realized it was. To me, Suu Kyi was like a character from 'X-Men,' except she's a real hero, not an imaginary one. She didn't need to do what she did, and she gave up a lot to do it."
Suu Kyi is, of course, a living heroine. That is why it will be interesting to see who will play her in the movie and how the Italian director and his film team will portray Burma's democracy icon and present her—and her beloved people's—struggle against the military dictatorship.
Arad told Variety that the movie is intended to reach the broadest possible audience. "It's a love story and a political thriller. If it's not commercially successful, we will have missed the mark."
Who knows? The film could rival the highly successful film on the life of Mahatma Gandhi, who led the nonviolent resistance movement against British colonial rule in India during the first half of the 20th century.
So watch the cinema schedules—"The Lady" will be coming soon

24th January 2008 - DVB-TV NEWS

2008-01-24T20:38:00.000Z

NEWS UPDATE(JAN 24)

2008-01-24T20:22:00.000Z

2008-01-24T19:44:00.000Z

Burmese children from a poor village stand next to main road

waiting for tourist donations in Pagan [Photo: AP]

Burma Has Second Highest Child Mortality Rate in Asia

By Min Lwin and Associated Press January 24, 2008

San San Aye, a farmer living some three miles from town, had no idea why her two-year-old son was suffering from chronic diarrhea. She took her child by foot to see the doctor at the government hospital nearest her town, Pale, in Sagaing Division of upper Burma. However, her baby died on the way.
This disturbing story is just one of hundreds of tragedies that happen in Burma every day.
Dr Osamu Kunii, a nutrition expert in Burma with the United Nations Children's Fund, said that between 100,000 to 150,000 children under five years of age die every year in Burma. That’s between 270 and 400 daily—and many are dying from preventable diseases.
Kunii was speaking Wednesday at the launch by UNICEF of its annual report, "The State of the World's Children." The report rated Burma as having the 4th highest child mortality rate in the world, surpassed in Asia only by Afghanistan, which has the third-worst record after Sierra Leone and Angola.
Burma’s unenviable position comes despite the fact that the death rate for young children in Burma had been reduced by 1.6 percent between 1990 and 2006. The under-5 mortality rate is considered a critical indicator for the well-being of children.
According to a child specialist in Monywa Township in Sagaing Division, most infants die from septicemia, diarrhea and tuberculosis. The lack of basic medical supplies and equipment is also a contributing factor for the high death rate, she said.
In 2000, the World Health Organization ranked Burma's overall health care system as the world's second worst after war-ravaged Sierra Leone. Tens of thousands of people in Burma die each year from malaria, tuberculosis, AIDS, dysentery, diarrhea and other illnesses.
The most vulnerable areas are, of course, in the rural and remote parts of Burma.
Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Thursday, Dr Thiha Maung from Mae Tao Clinic in Mae Sot, Thailand, said: “Some of these diseases are preventable, but the public health system does not reach [rural areas in Burma].”
Poor incomes, malnutrition and a shortage of clean drinking water also affect child mortality rates among the rural poor, added the doctor.
Eighty percent of Burmese people live in rural areas and continue to live in poverty, even lacking proper water supplies. Early rains and flooding increase the risk of malaria and dengue fever in rural areas, including Burma’s borders.
Most of Burma's health care is funded by international sources, with the government spending only about 3 percent on health annually, compared with 40 percent on the military, according to a report published this year by researchers from the University of California, Berkeley and Johns Hopkins University.

China Increasing Diplomatic Role on Burma Question

By Wai Moe January 24, 2008
Visits to Beijing recently by leading Burmese government representatives yielded evidence that China is playing an increasingly diplomatic role in breaking the Burma deadlock, according to informed observers.
After the most recent visit, by Burmese Deputy Foreign Minister Maung Myint, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said the Beijing government wanted a timetable set for UN Special Envoy Ibrahim Gambari to return to Burma to continue his mission.
Gambari had planned to return to Burma this month, but the junta put him off and suggested an April visit. Burma will then be celebrating its annual water festival, reason enough for the regime to restrict Gambari’s schedule—as it has on previous visits.
“We hope Mr Gambari and Myanmar [Burma] can, through communications, set a timetable for Mr Gambari’s visit to Myanmar [Burma],” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu, reporting on talks between Maung Myint and Chinese State Councillor Tang Jiaxuan.
Maung Myint represented Burmese Prime Minister Gen Thein Sein at the Beijing talks. A few months ago, Than Shwe also sent his special envoy, Foreign Minister Nyan Win to Beijing to brief Chinese officials on Burma’s internal situation.
Observers regard these visits as evidence that China is playing an increasingly diplomatic role in Burma’s political deadlock. International pressure is also mounting on China to do more to help advance political change in Burma.
One Burma observer, Bangkok journalist Larry Jagan, told The Irrawaddy he thought the Chinese government was very serious about trying to get Gambari back into Burma as soon as possible.
China had supported Gambari’s wish to visit Burma this month, according to Jagan. “But suddenly they want him to come before the end of February.”
Jagan cautioned that China wanted to see Burma taking economic reform rather than political reform.
Some observers are concerned that the regime is planning to wrap up the new constitution before Gambari again visits Burma.
“We heard the junta is trying to finish up its new constitution in March,” said Thakin Chan Tun, a veteran political commentator living in Rangoon.
Gambari remains optimistic about his mission, and told India’s NDTV that his next visit would lead to the release of political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi.
Observers see no indication that the regime will free Suu Kyi soon, however. “I don’t think it is possible,” said Jagan. Formal talks between her and top army leaders weren’t yet taking place, he pointed out.
Gambari is scheduled to visit India and the European Union headquarters in Brussels in coming weeks, and he may also go to China.
At Tuesday’s press conference in Beijing, Jiang Yu said the international community should view objectively the efforts being made by the Burmese government and give constructive help to Burma.
“I don’t think sanctions and applying pressure are helpful to the resolution of the issues,” she said. “Our cooperation is on the basis of equality and mutual benefit and is not related to the interests of any third party.”
China’s influence on the Burmese government was “limited,” Jiang Yu said. “You can’t expect any country, including China, to play that big a role in this county [Burma]. All they can do is make suggestions and offer some help.”
Aung Kyaw Zaw, a Burmese analyst and a former member of Communist Party of Burma, based on the Sino-Burmese border, disagreed.
China was Burma’s principal trading partner and supplier of arms, he pointed out. “If China really wants to influence the regime, it will have real impact on Burma,” he said, suggesting that Beijing should adopt a “carrot and stick” policy on Burma.

23rd January 2008 - DVB TV-NEWS

2008-01-23T18:08:00.000Z

NEWS UPDATE(JAN 23)

2008-01-23T17:54:00.000Z

2008-01-23T16:39:00.000Z

Poet Arrested After Coded Protest

By Shah Paung January 23, 2008
Burmese poet Saw Wai has been arrested after authorities deciphered a piece of his work that contained a hidden message criticizing junta leader Than Shwe, according to sources within Rangoon’s literary circle.
The Burmese language poem, titled “February 14,” contains seven lines whose first words spell out “Than Shwe is foolish with power.” The poem was published in the publication Love Journal, which rapidly sold out after its appearance.
A Rangoon editor said Saw Wai was arrested after meeting Special Branch officers in the company of the publisher of Love Journal, Myat Khine, and its editor-in-chef Pan Hmwai. Both are close to the Burmese military authorities.
“Artists are trying to express their feelings in this current political situation in any way they can,” the editor said.
At the time of the 1988 uprising, Saw Wai was on the staff at the communications office in Pyu, Pegu Division, but was sacked after taking part in the demonstrations. Currently he is now leader of the White Rainbow, a social group organized by artists and writers to help care for orphans whose parents died of AIDS.
Meanwhile, two anti-government protesters in Taunggok, Arakan State, were also arrested on Tuesday after shouting demands for the release of detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, according to eyewitnesses.
Earlier this month, troops and security forces blocked a demonstration by about 200 protesters, including monks, in Taunggok’s market.

Seeking the Truth, Informing the Public

By Aung Zaw January 23, 2008

If Burmese people are ready for change in Burma, then we must question whether the exiled Burmese media is ready for change. The answer, I believe, should be a resounding “Yes!”
Over the past decade, Burma’s various media operating inside the country have been struggling to confront the regime’s draconian press laws, heavy-handed censorship and intimidation.
As we all know, Burma enjoyed media freedom and perhaps the liveliest free press in Southeast Asia in the 1950s and 1960s. Burma’s first constitution in 1947 boldly guaranteed citizens the right to express their opinions and convictions. Unfortunately, freedoms of expression and media were rather short-lived.
The first impact against journalism came soon after Gen Ne Win seized power in 1962. Press freedom in Burma gradually disintegrated thereafter, curtailed by Ne Win’s socialist regime.
Newspapers were nationalized and foreign news agencies were asked to pack their bags. Journalists and editors found themselves in prisons. During the 1980s, all forms of public expression and publications had to pass through Burma’s notorious Press Scrutiny Board, even though Burma’s second constitution, drawn up in 1974, guaranteed freedom of expression. However, that freedom, like all others, was subject to the capricious whims and draconian dogma of the “Burmese Way to Socialism.”
In 1988, Burmese citizens marched the streets calling for Ne Win’s resignation and an end to one-party rule. For a brief period the people of Burma witnessed a revival of press freedom—hundreds of pro-democracy bulletins, newspapers and pamphlets were published without going through the PSB. Burma’s state-owned newspapers surprisingly departed from the rose-tinted official line and an objective reporting style suddenly emerged. Alas, it was also short-lived.
The second major impact on press freedom in Burma came shortly after the bloody coup on September 18, 1988. The reporters and editors of the country endured another dark era, facing arrest, torture and lengthy imprisonments. “Burma is an enemy of the press,” said the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists in 2005.
Even then, they didn’t give up.
Over the past decade, a new group of journalists and reporters has emerged—the exiles. Burmese journalists who were formerly political activists, ex-political prisoners from 1988 and those affiliated with the pro-democracy uprisings established news agencies in Burma’s neighboring countries, such as India and Thailand. The Irrawaddy itself, set up in 1993, was a result of this defiant era.
Several Burmese journalists joined the BBC and the VOA Burmese services; the Democratic Voice of Burma was set up by exiled Burmese in Norway.
These Burmese media groups have come of age and have proven themselves powerful in shaping public opinion and accurately informing an international audience.
During the uprising in September 2007, the reporters based in Burma and “citizen reporters” highlighted the monk-led uprising and exposed the brutality of the regime; but these exiled media groups also played a crucial role too.
Chinese-made radios sold out in Burma as news-hungry people rushed to listen to news from abroad. Satellite dishes were immediately installed to receive TV broadcasts from abroad.
Meanwhile, as troops opened fire on the peaceful demonstrators, monks and nuns, “citizen reporters” equipped with digital cameras, cell phones and memory sticks bravely took to the streets to take pictures and gather news.
Before the regime shut down Internet connections, thousands of images and live footage came out of Burma. Powerful photographs and videos told the world the true story of how Buddhist monks and laypeople challenged the Burmese regime, and how the regime, in turn, responded with brutal force. The image of the murder of Japanese photographer Kenji Nagai in broad daylight was splashed around the globe, reviewed time and again on TV screens by the BBC, CNN and Al Jazeera.
Burma’s exiled media—previously scorned by the internationally press as the “dissident underground media” or the “opposition media”—dutifully and faithfully disseminated all the news and images they received from Burma.
The exiled Burmese media have proved to the world, through their professional integrity, skills and talent, that they can function as effectively as any other medium in the world. Equally important were the friendships and informal alliances that were forged between bloggers and professional journalists while sharing news and images.
But there is a boundary line. We have to be guarded and cautious as we stick to our task of maintaining high standards of professionalism by ensuring that we deliver accurate news and stories to our readers.
I remember seeing images during the uprising of the body of a monk floating in a river and a man killed by 10-wheel truck on the road.
These images widely published on the Internet created anger and sadness among Burmese and foreigners alike in the belief that the military had carried out these executions. However, we could not confirm the origin of these pictures and some veteran journalists claimed that these two pictures were, in fact, unrelated to the uprising. In the end, The Irrawaddy did not publish these pictures.
In another case soon after, the news of the death of late Prime Minister Gen Soe Win was published in some exiled publications. But we waited for confirmation. When he was finally confirmed dead, we released the news accurately.
This is the job that media professionals must adhere to—fact-checking, verifying sources and getting confirmation, before sending out accurate news to their readers.
The uprising in 1988 and the monk-led uprising in September 2007 were equally important in Burma’s fight for freedom, democracy and a better society. Nevertheless, technology, computers, Internet connections and cell phones have changed the dynamic of the recent unrest. The attention Burma received was massive; moreover, inside and outside media professionals found ways to cooperate and narrowed any gaps or mistrust. The result is that more and more young Burmese are interested in learning journalism since the uprising.
Significantly, the exiled media groups not only shaped public opinion but offered editorial guidance and analysis to an international audience: officials, policy makers, UN agencies, NGOs, think tanks and international publications. They raised awareness and reached out to a global audience.
These media groups overnight became reliable sources of information to many international media outlets. It is hoped that the exiled Burmese media will maintain its professionalism, high standards of journalism and credibility, because they have a key role to play inside Burma once the country opens up.
Inevitably, the media will be part of the solution instead of part of the problem.
These opinions and comments were originally delivered at the Burma Update discussion at the Changing Dynamics in the Asia Pacific Conference in Bangkok.

ADDITIONAL NEWS

2008-01-22T19:47:00.000Z

22nd January 2008 - DVB-TV NEWS

2008-01-22T19:43:00.000Z

NEWS UPDATE(JAN 22)

2008-01-22T19:38:00.000Z

2008-01-22T14:53:00.000Z

Burma Looks to ‘Liberalize’ Fuel Imports

By Violet Cho January 22, 2008
Due to the continued increase in global fuel prices, the Burmese military government has “liberalized” trade by permitting the private sector to import fuel. Burmese economists dismiss the move as ineffective for Burmese consumers.
The Burmese junta recently announced that it would permit private businesses to seek fuel imports through the Trade Council, the country’s highest authority in terms of importing and exporting, according to local weekly Myanmar Times.
Under the existing procedure, only two companies—Union of Myanmar Economic Holding Ltd, a military generals’ syndicate, and Tay Za’s Htoo Trading Company—are allowed to import fuel.
Burmese economists believe that the military regime will allow so-called “private” companies to import fuel as a strategy to use the private companies as a source of hard cash or foreign currency, which is in great shortage in Burma.
“The government requires more hard currency, so they use private companies—which have their own hard currency in foreign banks—to solve their problems,” US-based Burmese economist, Sein Htay, told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday.
The economist also claimed the junta is currently facing problems with a lack of hard cash/ foreign currency since economic sanctions and banking surveillance was imposed by the United States government in December.
The US House of Representatives imposed sanctions against the Burmese military government, including the freezing of military officials’ bank accounts, following the junta’s brutal crackdown on peaceful protesters and monks in September.
The Burmese regime holds a monopoly on the sale of fuel in the country and regularly subsidizes prices. In August, the government raised the price of fuel from 1,500 kyat ($ 1.20) per imperial gallon to 3,000 kyat ($2.40) for diesel; and from 1,500 kyat to 2,500 kyat ($2) per gallon for gasoline.
Since then, black market fuel prices have been as high as 4,800 kyat ($3.84) per gallon for diesel and 4,600 kyat ($3.68) for a gallon of gasoline.
The massive price hikes sparked demonstrations that quickly grew into an anti-government uprising, as the increased fuel prices affected commuters in vital areas, such as public transport and the price of basic consumer goods.
According to the Ministry of Energy, Burma produces some 80 million gallons of diesel every year for domestic use, but, over the last few years, has had to import about 330 million gallons of the fuel every year from neighbouring Southeast Asian countries, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore.
Meanwhile, there have been rumours and allegations surrounding fuel rationing since the beginning of the year. The government recently announced that it would continue to conserve two gallons of fuel per vehicle per day for all vehicles in Rangoon.
However, Zaw Oo, a Burmese economist based in Washington, said that “government privatization will intensify the already high inflation that people are encountering at the moment.”
According to the Economic Intelligence Unit, a global economic think tank, annual inflation in Burma hit 50 percent by the end of 2007, but should ease back to around 30-40 percent in 2008/09.
As global fuel prices increase, it is imperative that the state takes measures to solve the problem through subsidizing the import of fuel and selling it back to the public at a lower price,” said Zaw Oo. “Privatization is not the correct approach currently for economic reform in Burma.”

2008-01-22T13:50:00.000Z

Sanctions Affecting Burmese Gems Trade

By Shah Paung January 22, 2008

The gems trade in Burma has slumped dramatically due to the sanctions imposed by the United States in December, according to gems and jade traders inside Burma and along the border areas.
A gems trader in the Thai-Burma border town of Mae Sot told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday that the gems market in Mae Sot has been very quiet since for about three months ago and since the New Year buyers have all but disappeared.
The gems and jade market in Mae Sot it still open for business, but vendors just spend all day sitting around waiting for buyers, he said, adding that only small-scale purchases are been made. “Before the sanctions, there were many buyers, including foreigners,” the trader said. “But now, if you want to see foreigners, you’ll have to go and watch a movie.” He added that gems and jades traders in Bangkok told him recently that the market is also down considerably in the Thai capital. He added that vendors at the Mae Sot gems market rely heavily on sales to Bangkok gem traders.
“I don’t know what to do now,” the Mae Sot trader said. “I think I’ll have to change jobs; if business goes on like this, I’ll have to quit.”
Meanwhile, residents in Mogok in central Burma—a center for rubies—also confirmed that their businesses were currently in a “wait and see” situation, relying heavily on cross-border trade.
According to sources, the downturn in the gems trade has also led to miners being laid off.
A gems trader at the China-Burma border, who mostly deals in private gems sales, told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday that the gems market at the Chinese border was also quiet. He said that before, even on a slow day, the market was milling with buyers and that gemstones valued at only 1,000 Chinese yuan (US $138) would trade hands on a daily basis.
“But now only up large sales—between 10,000 yuan ($1,380) and 50,000 yuan ($6,900)—are taking place, and those are increasingly rare,” he said.
Traders in Rangoon said that they have not been able to sell many stones at the recent gems shows organized by the Burmese authorities.
According to the state-run newspaper The New Light of Myanmar on Sunday, during the 24th Gems and Jade Sale in Rangoon from January 15 to 18, 2008, 357 lots of jade were sold and the event was attended by 737 local and 281 international gems and jade traders.
But the state media did not report, either in print or on television, the profits from the gems fair.
“Usually, they [the state media] would announce the amount of sales made and the income generated from the gems fair,” the trader in Mae Sot said. “But this time they didn’t. It’s obvious they didn’t sell much.”
In December, the US House of Representatives imposed sanctions against Burma’s multi-million dollar gemstone exports and the natural gas industry, as well as freezing the assets of certain military leaders, their families and business associates. Both Democrat and Republican lawmakers in the US House of Representatives hailed the sanctions legislation, called the “Block Burmese JADE (Junta’s Anti-Democratic Efforts) Act.”
The act was aimed at preventing the Burmese military regime from “laundering” gemstones through third countries to avoid US sanctions and ended the tax write-offs enjoyed by US energy giant Chevron on revenues earned from its natural gas project in Burma.
In November, the European Union also threatened to prohibit the import of Burmese gemstones.
The Human Rights Watch group last week also called for a boycott of the latest Burmese gem shows.
The Burmese military government received about $300 million from the sale of gems during the fiscal year 2006-07, according to the Myanmar Gems Enterprise. The sale of Burmese jade is one of the country’s major sources of foreign exchange.

21st January 2008 DVB TV-NEWS

2008-01-21T19:56:00.000Z

NEWS UPDATE(JAN 21)

2008-01-21T19:35:00.000Z

2008-01-21T13:06:00.000Z

India’s Pro-junta Stand Unlikely to Change,
Say Analysts

By Wai Moe January 21, 2008
India’s “Look East” foreign policy favoring the Burmese regime is not likely to change soon despite appeals by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and UN Special Envoy Ibrahim Gambari, observers say.
Brown met Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday and told him India has an important role to play in Burma’s transition to democracy and an end to that country’s problems.
Brown told reporters on Sunday that China was “working resolutely” on how to use its influence with Burma—“and we will be looking at how we can persuade the Burmese regime.” Gambari also told India’s television station NDTV recently that the UN wanted India to do more, drawing attention to India’s signing of a huge contract to build a port in Burma.
Gambari said India was “a democratic country with true commitment to human rights. We also believe that a peaceful, prosperous and democratic Myanmar [Burma] would be an even better partner for India than what the situation is right now.”
Gambari said the best guarantee for India’s investment was a peaceful, stable and democratic Burma. “What concerns us is not really their bilateral relations, but to use that, in our view, as an opportunity and leverage to help us by transmitting right messages.”
Win Min, a Burmese analyst based in Thailand, said India was second only to China in the influence it had over Burma. After China called for political changes following the September 2007 demonstrations, India then also openly talked about Burmese democracy.
“Previously India did not talk about Aung San Suu Kyi’s release and dialogue,” Win Min said. “But during the visit to New Delhi by Foreign Minister Nyan Win India spoke out about her freedom and a meaningful dialogue, including ethnic issues.”
However, Tint Swe of Burma’s government in exile, the National Coalition Government of Union of Burma, based in New Delhi, said India’s Burma policy did not appear to have changed significantly even after the September demonstrations and regime crackdown. “So the international community such as [British Prime Minister] Brown and the UN should push India, as the biggest democracy, to press for real transition to democracy in Burma.”
India’s “Look East” policy is based on economic ties with Southeast Asian nations, including Burma, a geo-politically important country for New Delhi.
Aung Kyaw Zaw, a Burmese political observer based on the Sino-Burmese border, said he didn’t think India would change its pro-junta policy in view of its rivalry with China.
“India might think the Burmese regime has become pro-China because India adopted a strong stand for Burmese democracy after the 1988 uprising,” he said.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has, meanwhile, convened the first meeting of a group of 14 countries, including China and India, to help him in his efforts to advance political change in Burma.
The “Group of Friends of the UN Secretary-General on Burma” is a consultative forum for developing a shared approach in support of the implementation of the Secretary-General’s good offices mandate.

Asean Won’t Let Burma Troubles Slow Regional Integration
By Gillian Wong/Associated Press Writer/Singapore
January 21, 2008
The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) will not let the actions of its troubled member Burma hamper the group's regional integration efforts, a senior Singaporean official said on Monday.
"We should not and will not let the Myanmar [Burma] issue slow down the integration of our region," Second Minister for Foreign Affairs Raymond Lim told the Singapore Parliament.
Lim was responding to Singaporean parliamentarians' questions on why Asean leaders cancelled a scheduled address by UN Special Envoy Ibrahim Gambari at the bloc's annual meeting in Singapore in November, after Burma had objected.
Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, the chairman of Asean, had invited Gambari to address the summit about the progress made in his meetings with Burma’s junta. But Burma regarded the issue as a domestic affair, Lim said.
"Myanmar [Burma] wanted to deal with the UN directly, and did not want Asean to play any political role. Once Myanmar [Burma] took this position, Asean could not proceed" as it is a consensus-based organization, Lim said.
"It is obviously unsatisfactory that Myanmar [Burma] sees no role for an organization of which it is a member, and on an issue which affects us all. But this is not a matter of Asean's credibility," Lim said.
Lim also ruled out the possibility of expelling Burma from the regional bloc, saying it was in Asean's interests to keep the country as "a member of the family."
"I don't think that expelling Myanmar [Burma] from Asean is the solution," he said. "We still have channels of communication which hopefully can influence the situation in Myanmar [Burma]."
"What happens in Myanmar [Burma] affects the well-being of the rest of Southeast Asia. We do not want to see Myanmar [Burma] descend into chaos or implode."
During the summit, Asean leaders signed a landmark charter to promote free trade and human rights, formally turning the 40-year-old organization—often derided as a toothless talk shop—into a rules-based legal entity if ratified by all 10 members. It also adopted a blueprint to transform the region into a European Union-style economic bloc.

NEWS UPDATE(JAN 20)

2008-01-19T19:44:00.000Z

2008-01-19T19:39:00.000Z

The China Factor

By Min Zin January 19, 2008
A few weeks after the September protests last year in Burma, a Chinese diplomat approached an influential Burmese advocate in New York and asked why the Burmese dubbed their protest the "Saffron Revolution."
"The diplomat was quite uncomfortable with this particular saffron name while he whispered to me," said the Burmese advocate, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "Chinese are very sensitive to the 'color revolutions'," she said.
In the wake of successful "color revolutions," meaning the victories of nonviolent democracy struggles in post-communist countries, such as Georgia's 2003 Rose Revolution and Ukraine's 2004 Orange Revolution, Beijing is anxious to prevent similar movements at home or among its neighbors.
Then, a country in its backyard triggered the "saffron revolution," and the military's subsequent crack down captured the world’s attention. Along with Burma's crisis, China was drawn into the spotlight in unflattering coverage in international media and diplomatic pressure increased against its support of one of the world's most odious regimes.
Public outcries have called on China to assume larger role in helping to resolve Burma's crisis.
However, contrary to common perceptions, China has a limited sway with the junta’s generals. China is not a patron that pulls the strings and the self-isolated, delusive Burmese regime is not a puppet. The relationship runs in both directions. This is what complicates Burma's problems and their resolution.
Of course, China has more power and influence on the generals than any other country. It also intends to use that leverage to its own benefit.
According to Chinese diplomats, Beijing has been gradually changing its Burma policy since the removal of former Prime Minister Khin Nyut in 2004 and the recent deadly crackdown in Burma. However, they warn that the policy shift should not be expected to be quick or dramatic. It will be slow and well-calculated.
"Than Shwe and Maung Aye are more intransigent than former dictator Ne Win, and they often do incredibly silly things," said a Chinese official during a meeting with a Burmese opposition activist. "China knows that Burma will not prosper under their leadership."
China’s special envoy, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi, was sent to Burma in November. He met with the junta's top leader, Snr-General Than Shwe, and asked the military "to resolve the pending issues through consultations so as to speed up the democratization process."
However, the regime responded that it will go with its own pace for unilateral implementation of its "Seven-Step Road Map," according to a Western diplomat.
"The Chinese keep telling us that the international community is overstating their influence over Burmese generals," said a European diplomat. "Beijing said they don't have ability to tell the regime what to do."
Aung Kyaw Zaw, a Burmese analyst living on the China-Burma border, disagrees with that interpretation.
"Persuasion, without power backup, will not work. The soft-soft approach should be changed. China must show the ‘stick’ part of its diplomacy," said Aung Kyaw Zaw.
However, Beijing is clearly not ready to go that far. It still believes that working to resolve Burma's problems is secondary to its principal economic and strategic interests in its relationship with the junta.
But simultaneously, China would like to maintain its international role as "a responsible stakeholder."
The time has come for concerted international diplomatic pressure on China to tip the balance toward the “responsible” direction. China must take up Thucydides’ advice: an amoral foreign policy is neither practical nor prudent. At the same time, the United States and the European Union cannot outsource Burma's democracy reform to China, which itself lacks democracy.
The West’s most powerful countries should coordinate with China to facilitate a real transition in conflict-ridden Burma.
However, diplomacy alone is not enough to compel China to play an effective role.
Public action is needed.
"China was very annoyed to see the wave of protests taking place outside its embassies in major cities of the world in the wake of the September protests," said Aung Kyaw Zaw. "More importantly, they were really worried when demonstrators linked Burma's cause with a 2008 Olympic boycott."
The vice mayor of Beijing warned in October 2007 that any move to link China's role in Burma to a boycott of the 2008 Olympics would be "inappropriate and unpopular." China is very much anxious to prevent any negative effect on the Olympic Games. They might even accommodate their Burma policy and give more support to the UN's Burma mediation role if they sensed a real damage to the much-hyped gala this summer, even though it might be a tactical and temporal accommodation.
However, the Burmese opposition has so far failed to seize and exploit this opportunity effectively. During the peak of Burma's "Saffron Revolution" in late September, The Washington Post labeled one of its editorials the "Saffron Olympic," highlighting the dynamics of an international campaign against Beijing's summer gala. But that effort has run out of steam.
"The Burmese opposition in exile cannot accelerate the campaign in a consistent manner,” said Nyo Ohn Myint, the head of the Foreign Affairs Office of the National League for Democracy (Liberated Area). “Our campaigners are going after ad hoc protests without a focus. We fail to form a wider coalition with other Olympic detractors. Unless we can launch a coordinated international grassroots action, China would not be swayed to our direction."
Beijing plans to start its Olympic gala on 8/8/08, a date that is surprisingly similar to the 20th anniversary of Burma's "Four Eight (8/8/88) Democracy Movement."
Whether or not Burma can make the best out of this coincidence remains to be seen.

18th January 2008 DVB-TV NEWS

2008-01-18T21:38:00.000Z

NEWS UPDATE(JAN 18)

2008-01-18T21:23:00.000Z

2008-01-18T15:13:00.000Z

Mandalay Journals Act as Junta Mouthpieces

By Min Lwin January 18, 2008
“If I do things wrong, you all have the right to write about it,” King Mindon once proudly told journalists in Mandalay.
Father of Burma’s last king, Thibaw, and founder of Mandalay in 1858, King Mindon apparently welcomed criticism of his policies, his family and himself by the local publications. One of those early newspapers, the Yadanarbone Daily, was actively encouraged by the king to write about the affairs of the palace.
King Mindon granted the media far more freedom of expression than exists today in Burma. Under the current regime there is no freedom of expression.
According to a journalist based in Mandalay, nowadays all media-related enterprises in the city are monopolized by the pro-junta Union Solidarity and Development Association and must be verified by the government’s Press Scrutiny and Registration Division.
Even journals, which mainly target rural people in upper Burma and which have always been considered essential sources of information, fall under the watchful eye of the pro-junta Union Solidarity and Development Association.
According to the journalist, five journals— the Mandalay Times, Nanmyint, Upper Myanmar, Shwe Mandalay and Mantoungyeait—are provided with financial and political support from Aung Thaung, Minister of Industry 1, and head of USDA Mandalay Division. “These journals propagate USDA misinformation and anti-NLD (National League for Democracy) rhetoric,” said a writer in Mandalay. “They write articles criticizing international sanctions, but support the activities of deposed NLD member Dr Soe Linn and his Wuntharnu party.”
Myo Min Min, a senior member of USDA Mandalay Division, is—in name only—the publisher of Shwe Mandalay, Upper Myanmar and the Mandalay Times. However, he is directly involved with gambling and the lottery, and uses these journals to launder his money, a source in Mandalay told The Irrawaddy, although he could not provide further details.
“Some editors of these journals claim that their publications are free from government interference, but they continue to publish propaganda on behalf of the USDA and attack foreign media,” said the Mandalay-based journalist.
Shwe Mandalay, a popular journal in Burma’s second city, circulates some 3,000 copies per week and reports news and celebrity gossip. It also publicizes the activities of senior USDA officials and attacks the British Broadcasting Corporation, Radio Free Burma, the Voice of America, and the Democratic Voice of Burma, all of which are based outside the country.
During the September uprising, the journal Nanmyint expressly criticized the monks’ refusal to accept alms from military families.
It is estimated that the five journals in Mandalay and Upper Burma have a total circulation of 7,000 copies.
“I don’t buy any of those journals,” said a businessman in Mandalay. “I am not interested in reading pro-junta propaganda and the activities of USDA members.”
Meanwhile, publishing permits are strictly controlled in Mandalay. Authorities only issue licenses to USDA senior members and their cronies; permission to publish or print is out of the question for ordinary citizens.
“We tried to submit an application to publish a journal in Mandalay, but the censorship board in Rangoon refused permission,” said Ko Paing, a poet in Mandalay.
After the Second World War, Mandalay enjoyed a cultural boom. Two newspapers—Ludu, founded by two well-known journalists, Hla and Ahmar, and the Hanthawaddy, edited by Win Tin, who is now in Insein prison—were well respected publications that reported independent news and critical articles.
“The Ludu was much more free than current journals; it didn’t have to pass the censorship board before it was printed,” said an editor based in Mandalay. “In those days, it was so easy to publish and circulate a journal.”

Time for Kyaw Hsan to Switch Off
By Yeni January 18, 2008

The official order suspending publication of Burma’s partly government-owned weekly, The Myanmar Times, and the resignation under pressure of one of its reporters, Win Kyaw Oo, in a newsroom reorganization are the latest examples of how Minister of Information Brig-Gen Kyaw Hsan is clumsily harassing the country’s media.

The Burmese-language edition of The Myanmar Times was suspended for one week as a penalty for carrying a report about a huge increase in satellite TV fees in its January 11 issue. The newspaper apparently published the story, which quoted an Agence France-Presse dispatch, without requesting the censorship board’s permission.

"The latest sanctions against news media that are already subject to censorship and self-censorship appear to be linked to recent official statements on press freedom," said the organizations Reporters Without Borders and the Burma Media Association in a joint statement.

That is true. Kyaw Hsan recently told Burma’s national association of printers and publishers that they should “place emphasis on improvement of the national economy and guard against destructionists that will undermine the national interest.” Kyaw Hsan warned editors, writers and publishers that the censorship board would “take action” if they wrote “news which can discourage the national interest.”

Since early 2006, Kyaw Hsan has been using his influence on a handful of editors and publishers in Burma to counter criticism of the country’s military regime by opposition and media groups in the West and exiles operating throughout the region.

Burma’s media groups, including The Myanmar Times, are forced to follow the junta’s party line, while some seem to do so out of genuine support for Burma’s military government.

While suppressing press freedom, Kyaw Hsan has opened wider opportunities for local journalists to get information and data from government officials. He has allowed reporters to cover natural disasters, poverty and health issues, such as HIV/AIDS—topics that were previously banned in Burma’s tightly-controlled media environment. He also presents a friendly face at press conferences.

He still has much to learn about dealing with the foreign press, however. Lesson one contains a warning not to prejudge the political leanings of a foreign media organization—as he reportedly did when inviting a team from the TV station Al Jazeera into the country to film a report on Burma. Kyaw Hsan and other generals apparently thought the TV station was anti-American because of its sometimes critical coverage of US foreign policy.

Kyaw Hsan told Al Jazeera presenter Veronica Pedrosa and her crew: “We fully understand the nature of the media and we do not ask to be biased for us. Yet, we hope that your news reports on Myanmar will be balanced and fair, reflecting the background history, actual conditions and situations.”

Just how little he knew about the “nature of the media” was painfully apparent to Kyaw Hsan and his government colleagues when they viewed Al Jazeera’s coverage of the September demonstrations. The excellent film reports were devoured by a large international audience and made Al Jazeera the favorite source of news in Burmese households.

Kyaw Hsan’s blunders earned him the soubriquet Burma’s Comical Ali in the Bangkok English-language daily The Nation, a reference to former Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf.

“In recent days, Southeast Asia has witnessed the emergence of its own version of Comical Ali, Burmese Information Minister Kyaw Hsan of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), the highest decision-making body in Burma’s military ruled state,” the newspaper said.

Kyaw Hsan’s latest dumb move was to announce a drastic increase in the annual satellite TV fee, from the equivalent of US $5 to $800, and a $1,000 charge for each TV owned by a hotel.

The increase triggered a storm of criticism, particularly from gambling businesses which need satellite TV coverage of international football matches. The generals are said to be deeply involved in the lucrative gambling business—and Kyaw Hsan’s fee hikes were not appreciated by the top brass, who apparently remained deaf to suggestions that the move would restrict the number of households able to receive foreign broadcasts.
While Kyaw Hsan was having second thoughts about the fee rise, The Myanmar Times went ahead and reported it. Woops!

Western Embassy Staff Complain of Visa Problems in Burma

By Wai Moe January 18, 2008
The Burmese junta has tightened its visa rules on Western diplomats, their family members and NGO employees working in Burma, sources told The Irrawaddy on Friday.
The diplomatic community in Rangoon was taken by surprise when the regime failed to renew or extend visas for some staff and family members of Western embassies.
An official at a Western embassy said there have been unusually long delays in the visa process for some embassy staff, NGO workers and UN officials based in Burma.
A source familiar with the Rangoon-based embassies said the difficulties have impacted about 30 diplomats, officials and family members in recent weeks.
It was unclear at the present time, if the problems are the result of an official policy or just administration difficulties or confusion, sources said.
Diplomatic sources in Rangoon told The Irrawaddy that it is difficult to know how the Burmese authorities plan to handle visas and passports these days.
The Irrawaddy called the Burma Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Naypyidaw, but the official who answered said she could not comment on the issue.
Some western diplomats said people in Western embassies appear to have more difficulties than the average foreigner who lives and works in Burma.
Some sources speculated that since several Western countries have placed visa bans on Burmese officials, the military government may be playing the same game.
Others expressed concerns that if they left they country, they may not be allowed to return.
Earlier, the passports of two Burmese staff members at the US embassy in Rangoon were seized by authorities at the Rangoon International Airport when they returned from an overseas trip. The incident took place in December.
The US has been a vocal critic of the regime, calling for a meaningful democratic transition in the country and has increased economic sanctions on the regime since the bloody crackdown in September.
After the crackdown, the US imposed targeted sanctions on dozens of Burmese officials and businesses.

Penang Sayadaw in Denmark

2008-01-18T10:42:00.001Z

Thee Lay Thee Performance in Bangkon

2008-01-17T23:27:00.000Z

Thee Lay Thee Performance in Malaysia

2008-01-17T23:04:00.000Z

17th January 2008 - DVB TV NEWS

2008-01-17T17:34:00.000Z

NEWS UPDATE(JAN 17)

2008-01-17T16:44:00.000Z

2008-01-17T15:35:00.001Z

Security Forces Break Up
Attempted Demonstration in Western Burma
By Wai Moe January 17, 2008
About 200 people in Taunggot Township in Arakan State in western Burma were prevented from staging a demonstration on Thursday by soldiers and security forces, according to local sources.
A witness told The Irrawaddy that a crowd gathered around the Taunggot Market, including Buddhist monks, at about 7 am.
The security forces included members of the Union Solidarity and Development Association.
“A number of security force people prevented the protest,” said a local source. “Authorities used the same techniques they used in Rangoon.”

He said security forces formed a line and pushed back the protesters with metal shields and truncheons.
No one was arrested or injured, said the source.

Fearing a possible demonstration, the authorities closed the market on Wednesday without notice after interrogating two local members of the opposition National League for Democracy.

“This morning [Thursday] all the shops on streets around the market were doing business so it was very crowded,” said a witness. “An angry crowd was ready to demonstrate.”

Nyan Win, a NLD spokesperson, said NLD members in the township were closely watched and are now under surveillance.

Residents in Taunggot also demonstrated during the pro-democracy protests in August and September 2007.

Two men, Sithu and Than Lwin, staged a two-hour demonstration on August 31 and were arrested. The two carried sign boards declaring, “People Are Starving!” as a protest against fuel and commodity prices.

On September 4, about 1,000 people in the township staged a peaceful protest demanding the release of Sithu and Than Lwin, led by 15 local NLD members.

Another Explosion in Burma Kills Bus Conductor
By The Associated Press January 17, 2008
Five people have been injured in the blasts, which the ruling junta has generally blamed on unspecified foreign groups.
The junta routinely blames acts of violence on foreigners, including street rallies last year led by Buddhist monks that the government suppressed with a violent crackdown. After troops fired on peaceful protesters in September, the junta accused Western powers and the foreign media of fomenting the protests.
"Information has been received that a foreign organization has sent terrorist saboteurs with explosives across the border to perpetrate destructive acts inside the country," the Myanma Ahlin newspaper said Monday.
The latest blast occurred Wednesday when the bus was in Pyinbonegyi, 105 kilometers (65 miles) north of Rangoon, the country's biggest city, the New Light of Myanmar said. It instantly killed the 35-year-old bus conductor Lwin Soe, the newspaper said.
A government source, who spoke on conditional of anonymity since he was not authorized to speak to the press, said the blast took place when the bus was stopped to allow passengers to eat at a roadside shop, and the conductor remained on board. The bus was traveling to Rangoon from Kyaukyi, a town about 170 kilometers (110 miles) to the north.
State media linked at least one of the recent bombings to ethnic Karen rebels, and the bus that was hit by an explosion Wednesday originated in an ethnic Karen area.
The first of the recent explosions occurred January 11 at the railway station serving the country's new administrative capital of Naypyitaw, killing a 40-year-old ethnic Karen woman whom the government later said was the bomber.
The second blast occurred Friday night at a circus in the northern town of Pyu, injuring four civilians and killing a man said to be a Karen rebel who allegedly planted the explosive.
The third blast on Sunday near a public toilet at the ticketing office of Rangoon's main railway station injured a 73-year-old woman.
The Karen National Union has been fighting for half a century for greater autonomy from Burma's military government. It is the only major ethnic rebel group that has not agreed to a cease-fire with the junta. But they and other government opponents deny carrying out attacks targeting civilians.
Terrorism is rare but not unknown in Burma, which has been under military rule almost continuously since 1962.
The deadliest such attack in recent years took place on May 7, 2005, when three bombs went off almost simultaneously at two upscale supermarkets and a convention center in Rangoon, killing about two dozen people and injuring more than 160 others. The perpetrators remain unknown.

16th January 2008 DVB TV NEWS

2008-01-17T15:07:00.000Z

Trickle-down Economics / January 16, 2008

2008-01-16T20:21:00.000Z

Trickle-down Economics

NEWS UPDATE(JAN 16)

2008-01-16T20:06:00.000Z

2008-01-16T19:51:00.000Z

Gold and Fuel Prices Increasing

By Shah Paung January 16, 2008
Due to rising price of gold and crude oil on global markets, the prices of both commodities are also increasing in Burma.
According to a gold shop owner in Rangoon the highest price for gold in Burma reached 602,000 kyat (US $482) per tical (6.4 grams) on Tuesday from 599,000 kyat ($479).
Currently on the global market, the price of gold has risen above $900 per ounce while diesel oil price is priced at $2.535 per gallon (3.8 liters). Gasoline is at $2.293 per gallon. The high price of gold does not affect many ordinary people in Burma as few can afford to buy it. In addition, the military government forbids the press from reporting gold prices.
Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Wednesday, an employee at a trading company in Rangoon said, “Whether the price of gold and the dollar go up or down, it still won’t make any difference to working class people who are already suffering.”
However, an increase in fuel prices will affect everyone as soon as all other commodities go up in price.
A black market fuel trader in Rangoon, who spoke to The Irrawaddy anonymously on Tuesday, said that one gallon of diesel currently costs 4,700 kyat ($3.76) and a gallon of gasoline is 4,800 kyat ($3.84).
Five days ago, diesel was priced at 3,800 kyat ($3.04) to 4,000 kyat ($3.2) and gasoline was 4,200 kyat ($3.36).
The fuel trader said that the increase in fuel prices was not good for anyone and slowed down the trade in fuel.
“People are now afraid to buy and sell fuel,” he said.
In August 2007, the Burmese military government suddenly increased the price of fuel, infuriating an already cash-strapped populace and leading to the September uprising, which was brutally put down by the military regime.
According to Bayint Naung Wholesale Market in Rangoon, low-quality rice is currently priced at 7,000 kyat ($5.6) for one basket (approximately 20 kilograms per basket) and the high-quality price is between 19,000 kyat ($15.2) and 25,000 kyat ($20).
Last week, low-quality rice was costing 5,500 kyat ($4.4) per basket while high-quality rice was selling for 16,000 kyat ($12.8) to 22,000 kyat ($17.6) per basket.
In Burma, the average daily salary is less than $1.

Democracy Movement Needs

More Financial Assistance,

Say Activists
By Wai Moe January 16, 2008

The international community has united in condemning the Burmese military government but financial assistance to fund pro-democracy and civil society groups remains limited, activists say.

Since the early 1990s, funding agencies from Western countries have provided annual grants and other funds for Burma’s democracy movement, particularly the Washington-based National Endowment for Democracy (NED), the International Republican Institute, the Danish Burma Committee of Denmark and the Norway-based Norwegian Burma Committee (NBC).

However, most international donors underestimated the democracy movement and opposition groups in Burma and along the border, Nyo Ohn Myint, the head of the Foreign Affairs Office of the National League for Democracy (Liberated Area) told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday.

He said many international NGOs and foreign experts who work on Burma issues miscalculated the democracy movement and were ill-prepared for a civil uprising like that in September 2007.

“NGOs that could influence donors at the international level thought Burma’s democracy movement was going nowhere (before the monk-led uprising),” he said.

“So they (NGOs and Burma experts) recommended that donors not increase grants to political campaign groups that could shape the political landscape to perhaps remove the regime.”

He said NGO workers can not think like government officials on Burma issues.

During the “Saffron Revolution” in September, several dissident groups based on the Thai border faced serious funding shortages, he said. Worse still, no emergency funds were available to border pro-democracy groups that have connections with activists and monks inside Burma.

“Donors should rethink how to provide funds to democracy movements in an effective way,” said Nyo Ohn Myint, who fled Burma after the bloody crackdown in 1988.

He said grants and funding provided by international organizations were usually small.

“It makes us ‘mission impossible’ (to achieve change),” he said.

The exiled National Council of Union of Burma which includes several key ethnic leaders received
US $20,000 from a Western donor for “inside political work,” he said.

He asked, “How can we do inside movement work with this amount?”

Some political groups formed by activists and dissidents have channeled funds and other assistance to inside Burma, but they have never publicly acknowledged their work.

During the crisis, some activists inside Burma said they could accomplish more if they had much needed assistance. In the past, some prominent activists were arrested simply because they could not afford transportation fees or money to rent a safe place to hide.

Aung Moe Zaw, the leader of the Democratic Party for a New Society (DPNS), said a few international funding agencies are interested in providing assistance to Burma’s fragile democracy movement.

“But we need more aid for the democracy movement,” he said. “I mean not just money alone, but also other capacity building assistance.”

He praised the Washington-based NED of giving support to the movement.

“The NED is the only one that openly supports our democracy movement,” the said. The DPNS receives grants from NED.

The NED provided more than US $3 million to Burmese dissident groups, civil society groups and Burmese media groups in exile in its 2006 annual budget.

Burmese dissidents say, however, the amount of aid to the movement is small and lacks a long-term plan and consistency.

Bo Kyi, the joint secretary of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma), said money and international assistance is essential during a critical period.

“We need to make sure there are funds available during a time of crisis,” he said, referring to the September uprising.

Bo Kyi, a former political prisoner and the co-founder of the AAPP in Mae Sot opposite Myawaddy, said grants provided by international groups to the Burma movement are less than the value of a missile (dropped on Iraq).

Comparing the West’s funding of democracy-building projects around the world, particularly in Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan, he said, “We just receive pocket change.”

A prominent activist who is involved in political training in Burma agreed that grants are inadequate.

“If we want to see change in Burma, these small grants won’t make any significant change,” he said. He requested anonymity because he wants to maintain a good relationship with donors.

Activists point to the military regime’s investment to maintain and prolong military rule.

“Look at how much money they (military rulers) spend to run the military machine,” said Bo Kyi.

UN reports estimate the regime spends more than 40 percent of the national budget on the military.

The armed forces budget has increased over the past decade. It is estimated the regime receives US $2 billion each year from gas revenue.

“What do you expect us to do with peanuts or little funding—remove the regime?” asked Nyo Ohn Myint.

15th January 2008(DVB TV-NEWS)

2008-01-15T20:38:00.000Z

NEWS UPDATE(JAN 15)

2008-01-15T20:09:00.000Z

2008-01-15T19:43:00.000Z

Myanmar Times Falls
Victim to Burma’s “Comical Ali”
By Wai Moe January 15, 2008

The Myanmar Times, Burma’s privately-owned, English language weekly, has been ordered to suspend publication for one week and sack four of its Burmese editors after carrying a report that had not been authorized by the government’s censorship board.

The report, in the current issue, told readers that satellite TV fees were to be increased from the equivalent of US $5 annually to $800. The news provoked wide public criticism, and the government appears to be having second thoughts about introducing the rise and has not yet implemented it.
The four Myanmar Times employees ordered to be sacked were named as news chief Win Kyaw Oo and editors Nwe Nwe Aye, Win Nyunt Lwin and Myint Soe.
The order suspending The Myanmar Times for one week comes amid signs that the regime is clamping down still further on the Burmese media. Information Minister Brig-Gen Kyaw Hsan—dubbed “Comical Ali” by a Thai daily newspaper—warned editors, writers and publishers that the censorship board would “take action” if they wrote “news which can discourage the national interest.”
Kyaw Hsan told Burma’s national association of printers and publishers that they should “place emphasis on improvement of national economy and guard against destructionists that will undermine the national interest,” according to a report by The New Light of Myanmar on Monday.
Kyaw Hsan, right hand man of junta leader Snr-Gen Than Shwe, is described as one of four “super hard-liners,” along with Culture Minister Maj-Gen Aung Khin Myint, Industry Minister-1 Aung Thaung and Minister of Science and Technology Maung Thaung.
Kyaw Hsan took his hardline views on freedom of the press to an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) meeting last month, telling one of the organization’s committees: “Some powerful nations are misusing the media as a weapon to interfere in the internal affairs of small nations [as well as to spread] biased information with negative views to tarnish the image of the country internationally.”
Commenting on Kyaw Hsan’s Asean appearance, The Nation, one of two English newspapers in Thailand, dubbed him Burma’s “Comical Ali,” in a reference to former Iraqi information minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf.
The newspaper said: “In recent days, Southeast Asia has witnessed the emergence of its own version of Comical Ali, Burmese Information Minister Kyaw Hsan of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), the highest decision-making body in Burma’s military ruled state.
“The world adored Comical Ali’s trademark beret and smile and gave him a break. Unfortunately for Kyaw Hsan and the SPDC, the world cannot do the same, and must not do the same.”
Observers say that is unlikely to happen as long as Kyaw Hsan comes up with truly comical statements like the one attributed to him by the regime-run media on Tuesday: “A nation may fall under colonial rule because of the media.”

Recent NLD Publication Violated Law, Say Authorities
By Shah Paung January 15, 2008

The Burmese regime’s censorship board has warned the National League for Democracy, the main opposition party, about its recent publication of a bulletin that discussed the pro-democracy uprising, according to a NLD spokesperson.
Spokesperson Han Tha Myint told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday that an official from the junta’s Press Scrutiny and Registration Board on Monday asked to discuss the publication.
Later, Nyan Win, another NLD spokesperson, went to the censorship office in Bahan Township in Rangoon. Nyan Win met with Maj. Tint Swe, the director of the censorship board and township chairman.
He said the authorities told him that the publication of the bulletin on January 4 was against the publication act.
No action against the NLD was taken at the time.
On January 4, the 60th anniversary of Burma’s Independence Day, youth members of the NLD published and distributed news bulletin called Ah-yoan-thit or “Dawn.”
The publication included news about the September crackdown on peaceful protestors, the closure of Maggin Monastery, detained NLD members and the distribution of VCDs critical of the military government and others.
Han Tha Myint said authorities told Nyan Win that the NLD can not print publications because it does not have a press registration work permit.
According to Aung Thein, a lawyer in Rangoon, the Printers and Publishers Registration Act says anyone who publishes news without a press registration work permit can receive from one to seven years or fined from 3,000 kyats (US $2.40) to 30,000 kyats ($24).
According to the NLD, its press registration work permit was revoked by the military government in the early 1990s.

NEWS UPDATE(JAN 14)

2008-01-14T19:51:00.000Z

2008-01-14T16:01:00.000Z

Passengers ride a train near Mandalay. A blast at a railway station

in Burma's main city of Rangoon has injured a woman [Photo:AFP]

KNU and Regime Trade Charges Over Bomb Attacks

By Wai Moe January 14, 2008

The Burmese regime and the Karen National Union (KNU) have traded accusations of responsibility for three bomb attacks over the past three days.
Two people died and several were injured in the attacks in Rangoon, Naypyidaw and Pyu in Pegu Division.
In separate reports on the attacks, the regime’s mouthpiece, The New Light of Myanmar, blamed “terrorist saboteurs” from abroad and a KNU “insurgent.” It said the accused “insurgent” had died while planting the Pyu bomb.
KNU spokesman David Taw denied the organization had anything to do with the attacks. Only military personnel with experience of explosives could plant such devices, he told The Irrawaddy.
“When something [like this] happens in Burma, they [the junta] accuse dissident groups, such as the KNU, the SSA [Shan State Army-South], the KNPP [Karenni National Progressive Party], based on the Thai-Burmese border,” Taw said.
The junta had been unable to track down those responsible for previous bomb attacks, he said—“then we are easily accused.”
The first bomb exploded last Friday at the main railway station of Naypyidaw, the Burmese capital. One woman died in the blast.
A second bomb exploded on Friday at a football ground in Pyu Township, near the site of a circus.
The third bomb exploded near the ticket office of Rangoon’s main railway station on Sunday. The New Light of Myanmar reported that a 73-year-old woman was injured by the blast, although an eyewitness said at least two people had been hurt.
The New Light Myanmar said: “Terrorist saboteurs have been sent into the nation across the border together with explosives to perpetrate destructive acts under the scheme of a group from abroad.” It did not name the accused group.
In its report on the Pyu bomb, The New Light of Myanmar said: “A KNU insurgent, [aged] about 25, was killed when the bomb he was planting to detonate exploded prematurely. People nearby seized a US-made 0.22 revolver in a holster [and] 20 rounds of ammunition.”
The New Light of Myanmar claimed the dead man was a member of the KNA’s Third Brigade.
The KNU has been fighting for half a century for autonomy for Karen State. It is the only major ethnic rebel group not to have agreed to a ceasefire with the junta.
In May, 2005, a series of bombs exploded in two supermarkets and a convention center in Rangoon, with an official toll of 19 dead and 162 injured. It’s thought that the real toll is higher.
Information Minister Brig-Gen Kyaw Hsan claimed at a Rangoon press conference: that it was “crystal clear” that the perpetrators and the bombs “originated from training conducted with foreign experts at a place in a neighboring country by a world-famous organization of a certain superpower nation.” The “certain superpower nation” was understood to be the US and the “world famous organization” consequently the CIA.
Analysts said the attacks could only have been carried out by well-trained operatives. Some believed that since the ouster of military intelligence chief Gen Khin Nyunt in October 2004, enemies of the junta had been planning to take advantage of internal conflicts and possible security lapses.

Junta to Sell Teachers Mobile Phones as ‘Bonus’
By Min Lwin January 14, 2008

Burmese authorities are in the process of offering 7,000 senior assistant teachers in state high schools in Rangoon Division a chance to buy GSM mobile phones at below market value, according to a teacher from No.1 Basic Education High School in Dagon Township.

“The authorities will give the teachers a permit so that they can buy the phones for 1,550,000 kyat (US $1,200),” said a teacher who asked for anonymity. “Now they [the authorities] are collecting a list of teachers from the headmasters of the schools.”

Selling the teachers GSM mobile phones at a price below market value is seen as a “bonus” or reward from the authorities and a way to encourage loyalty to the military government, said one teacher.

A teacher in North Okalarpa Township confirmed to The Irrawaddy on Monday that teachers will pay 1.5 million kyat and an additional 300,000 “for welfare” to the No.3 basic education department that is in charge of the schools and teachers.

Currently, a GSM phone costs around $1,700 (2.1 million kyat) on the black market.

“If some teachers don’t want to have the phone, they can sell the permit on the black market,” said the teacher.

“It seems the generals are trying to ‘buy’ teachers’ loyalty,” said one Rangoon resident.
“They [the authorities] want the teachers to help to keep the students in check.

“The GSM phone is an award for the teachers because they did not encourage the students to join the monk-led protests in September.”

The 1988 democracy uprising was led by university and high school students.

Meanwhile, a teacher in Prome, Min Min, was sentenced to three years in prison for his involvement in a human rights workshop in July 2007.

Traditionally, teachers and authorities are at odds. Teacher salaries are low, and they are prohibited from offering private tutoring classes.

There are nearly 6,000 high school teachers in Rangoon Division, serving in 2667 schools.

Why are they scared of Aung San Suu Kyi?

2008-01-13T20:16:00.000Z

NEWS UPDATE(JAN 13)

2008-01-13T18:32:00.000Z

2008-01-12T13:58:00.000Z

Mission Impossible
By Min Zin January 12, 2008
To the Burmese generals, accepting international mediation has become just another means of conducting the conflict as opposed to an option for settling it. In other words, it is a tactical maneuver.
In the wake of the protests in September last year, the regime accepted the mediation efforts of the United Nations simply because rejecting them would cause greater harm in the international arena. More importantly, the junta might not have wanted to upset relations with its staunch regional supporters.
It is hardly surprising that the Burmese government is defying the UN's attempts at mediation—it feels confident that it is successfully bringing the country back under control. Despite UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon repeatedly warning that a return to the status quo that existed before the September crisis is not sustainable, the present situation is heading all the way back to square one.
Ban is trying to revive his Good Offices’ mediation efforts and to dispatch Ibrahim Gambari to China and India before the end of January "to continue further consultations with Burma's neighbors," according to UN officials. At the moment however, the Burmese authorities have not even approved Gambari’s itinerary for Burma.
"As for Myanmar (Burma) itself, we don't have an exact date for Mr Gambari to go back there, although he does have an open invitation to visit the country," said Farhan Haq, a UN spokesman. "The question is about developing the right arrangements. We are keeping in touch with the authorities in Myanmar (Burma) to discuss when Mr Gambari may be able to return."
Burmese opposition party National League for Democracy sent a letter to the UN Secretary-General recently, expressing a readiness to accept Gambari's mediation efforts toward political dialogue and national reconciliation. "Though we cannot ascertain if Mr Gambari will be able to visit Burma during his trip to Asia, we urge the [Burmese] government to accept his visit and the resumption of the stalled political dialogue," said Nyan Win, a spokesman for the party.
However, some diplomatic sources within the UN spoke recently to The Irrawaddy and expressed doubts about the possibility of Gambari visiting Burma on this particular trip.
"He is more likely to come back to New York after visiting China and India," said a foreign diplomat at the UN who spoke on condition of anonymity. "Mr Gambari may not be able to give another Burma briefing at the UN Security Council after this trip, even though some council members will be expecting such a briefing in order to keep the Burma issue on board."
In fact, the UN envoy and other key international players realize that the momentum of the international mediation efforts toward Burma is now fading. They must try to reactivate the momentum and to prioritize a return visit by Gambari to Burma as soon as possible.
"The success of Mr Gambari's efforts largely depend on the readiness of China and India to use their leverage over the Burmese junta," said Dr Thaung Tun, UN representative of the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma—effectively the Burmese government in exile. "China retreated when they really needed to apply pressure on Burma, even though they said they supported Gambari's mission."
After the September uprising and the subsequent military crackdowns, Gambari managed to garner regional consensus on Burma. Those who had kept saying that the Burmese issue was an internal matter—China, India and Asean—came to the consensus that the country really did have a problem, and that the ruling junta should cooperate with UN for the benefit of national reconciliation and democratization. "Mr Gambari has been dealing with a number of neighboring countries to see what contribution they can make in the process toward normalcy and democratization in Myanmar (Burma)," Haq told The Irrawaddy. "In his upcoming Asia trip, he will simply try to continue that process".
Of course, Gambari must hold China and India to their promise that they would ensure the Burmese regime’s full cooperation with the UN Envoy, especially given the situation that his access to the country is so uncertain. Otherwise, Gambari may face a similar fate to his predecessor, Razali Ismail, who ended his mission denied entry to Burma indefinitely.
The international community needs to be "more insistent with the junta that a special representative of the UN Secretary-General cannot be treated the way that the junta has treated Mr. Gambari,'' United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said late last month. "It's simply unacceptable," Rice added, referring to the way the Burmese authorities had undermined his entry to and movements around Burma last time round.
The outgoing US administration must surely realize its diplomatic constraints in pushing Burma at the Security Council in the face of harsh resistance from China. Contrary to a common misconception, Gambari's current mission is a non-binding mediation effort and he does not have any enforcement capacity. From the very beginning, the leverage he has wielded has largely lain at the mercy of military junta and, to a lesser extent, its key ally, China.
There is no other country in the region or within the Security Council that can initiate a credible alternative Burma policy to the current mechanism of the Good Offices’ role. Sadly, Chinese checkers is the only game in town.
The US Secretary of State recently said that Gambari's mission "needs more profile; it needs to have more vigor." However, she did not articulate how this could be done effectively. Unless the international community compels the Burmese junta to feel that the cost of rejecting the mission, the UN envoy will remain toothless.

2008-01-12T13:54:00.000Z

Junta Warns Public to Be Vigilant
after Bomb Blast Kills Woman
By The Associated Press January 12, 2008
Burma's ruling junta warned the public to be vigilant and report suspicious activities following a bombing that killed one woman in the capital, state-run media said Saturday.
A bomb exploded at a railway station in Naypyidaw early Friday, killing a 40-year-old ethnic Karen woman, the Myanmar Ahlin daily reported.
There were no immediate claims of responsibility. The government has not blamed any group, but the news report said terrorists were smuggling explosives into the country to carry out bombings.
Authorities warned the public to be vigilant against terrorists and to cooperate with officials by informing them of suspicious activities and turning in the suspects, the report said.
Terrorism is rare but not unknown in Burma, which has been under military rule almost continuously since 1962.
The country underwent extreme political turmoil in September, when the government crushed nonviolent, pro-democracy demonstrations, detained thousands and killed at least 31 people, according to a UN investigator, whose tally was twice the toll acknowledged by the junta.
Naypyidaw is in a remote area 400 kilometers (250 miles) north of Rangoon, the country's old capital and biggest city. It became the country's new administrative capital and main military stronghold in November 2005 and is heavily guarded.
The most deadly terrorist incident in recent years in Burma took place in May 2005, when three bombs went off almost simultaneously at two upscale supermarkets and a convention center in Rangoon. About two dozen people were killed and another 162 injured.
Several small bombings occurred in the country last year, causing minor damage and injuries.
The government often blames political opponents and ethnic rebels for the bombings, though no firm evidence has been produced. Government opponents deny carrying out attacks on civilians.
Burma's military government recently warned that such groups were planning more bombings in major cities.

NEWS UPDATE(JAN 11)

2008-01-11T20:26:00.000Z

2008-01-11T17:33:00.000Z

A protester residing in Japan holds a poster of
pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi during
a march demanding human rights in Burma [Photo: Reuters]

Suu Kyi Meets Junta’s Liaison Officer Again
By Wai Moe January 11, 2008
Burma’s detained opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, met with the Burmese junta’s liaison officer, ex Maj-Gen Aung Kyi, on Friday, according to sources in Rangoon.
A convoy of vehicles, which was said to transport Suu Kyi, left her lakeside residence about 1 p.m. and returned about 2 p.m.
The meeting between Suu Kyi and Aung Kyi, who is also Minister of Labor, was the forth since the crackdown on pro-democracy protests in September. The meeting has not been officially confirmed by authorities or Suu Kyi supporters.
“In the past we couldn’t talk with the junta. If we can talk, it is a good sign for the political process,” said Nyan Win, a spokesperson for the National League for Democracy (NLD). “To reconcile with each other, we must start talks.”
The third meeting between Suu Kyi and Aung Kyi was on November 19, during the Association of Southeast Asian Nations meeting in Singapore.
The NLD openly criticized the process in December, after two months without any meetings, saying the government needed to move faster and that no NLD officials had been allowed to meet with Suu Kyi, which was a specific request made by Suu Kyi during her meeting with the United Nation’s special envoy to Burma, Ibrahim Gambari, in early November.
Aung Kyi, who was appointed as liaison officer on October 9 last year, said during s press conference in December in Naypyidaw that his three meetings with the Nobel peace prize winner had yielded "positive developments."
“I met with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi for three times. We have made progress at the meetings. The first meeting was aimed at gaining understanding between us. The second meeting was to discuss frameworks for the future. The third meeting was to discuss the facts that should be included in the framework,” said Aung Kyi during the press conference.
“We will release information related to the meetings when necessary,” he said. “Regarding the time frame, we will continue to hold meetings with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. We need to consider what to discuss and why. We are choosing ‘What’ and ‘Why.’ So, we will take ‘Where,’ ‘How’ and ‘When’ into consideration in the future.”
Some members of the international community and dissident groups say the junta is not really interested in dialogue, noting that Snr-Gen Than Shwe, the head of the junta, has shown no sign of honoring a commitment to meet with Suu Kyi himself, which he made in talks with Gambari.
The junta leaders offered to meet with Suu Kyi, who is under house arrest, but only on condition she renounce calls for international sanctions against the military regime, which has been widely condemned for its crackdown on the anti-junta protests in September.
The NLD sent a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon recently expressing its readiness to accept the U.N. special envoy’s mediation efforts for political dialogue and national reconciliation.

Bomb Blast in Pyinmana,
One Woman Killed
By Saw Yan Naing January 11, 2008
A bomb exploded at Naypyidaw railway station in Pyinmana at about 4 am on Friday morning, killing one woman, according to sources in Naypyidaw. It is the first bomb blast since the military junta moved the capital to Naypyidaw in 2005.
A government employee in the new capital said that the explosion occurred in a toilet belonging to the Naypyidaw railway station and that security forces had surrounded the site since the incident.
A police officer in Naypyidaw, who spoke to The Irrawaddy by phone on Friday, said that an explosion had occurred, but could not provide further details.
In the past—after any such explosion or attack—the Burmese military government has usually accused exiled Burmese opposition groups and ethnic guerrillas, especially the Karen National Union, for being responsible.
In May, 2005, three bombs exploded almost simultaneously in Rangoon, killing about 20 people, while more than 100 were injured.
The military junta moved the capital from Rangoon to Naypyidaw, 250 miles to the north of Rangoon, in November 2005

You can’t shoot what you can’t see

2008-01-10T22:03:00.000Z

You can’t shoot what you can’t see

2008-01-10T21:02:00.000Z

Zarganar Plans Aung San Film

By Min Lwin January 10, 2008
Burmese film director Maung Thura—better known as the comedian Zarganar—is writing a script for a movie he hopes will be made about the life of Burma’s independence hero Aung San.
Aung San, father of Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, is a tabu subject in his native Burma, where successive regimes have suppressed any plans to honor him with a film biography.
Zarganar, who has repeatedly fallen foul of the present regime because of his iconoclastic humor and pro-democracy activities, told The Irrawaddy he wanted the film to be made by a foreign producer. He is anyway banned by the regime from film and video work.
“I am not interested in working with local producers,” he said. “I am going to show my script to international producers.”
Zarganar is, in the meantime, publishing his script on his Web site http://www.zarganar-windoor.blogspot.com/, inviting readers to contribute their input.
The scenario begins with the assassination of Aung San and 17 comrades on July 19, 1947, and then recounts his life in flashback.
“Aung San played a key role in Burma’s history and it can’t fade,” Zarganar said.

NEWS UPDATE(JAN 10)

2008-01-10T20:51:00.000Z