From Bahrain "Gulf Daily News"

Myanmar's detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi yesterday met visiting UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari, outlining conditions for dialogue with the junta as the diplomat struggled to make a breakthrough. Gambari is in Myanmar to try to push all sides in the military-ruled nation toward dialogue on democratic reform, after his last visit in August ended in deadlock with Suu Kyi refusing to meet him.

The junta has also shown little sign of embracing the Nigerian troubleshooter's role, and he is not expected to meet reclusive head of state Senior General Than Shwe during his four-day visit, which began on Saturday.

Yesterday, Suu Kyi was allowed out of the lakeside home where she has been kept prisoner for most of the last 19 years to meet Gambari and five senior members of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party.

Suu Kyi expressed frustration over the world body's failure to persuade the junta to give up their monopoly on power, her party said.

She told Gambari that any visit by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon should be conditional on the release of her and all political prisoners, NLD spokesman Nyan Win said, while the party also reiterated its stance.

"Our demands are the release of all political prisoners, a review of the constitution, call the People's parliament and also dialogue," said Nyan Win.

People's parliament refers to the landslide election victory by Suu Kyi and the NLD in 1990 - an outcome that was ignored by the junta, with the military instead cementing its now nearly five-decade grip on power.

Nyan Win said Suu Kyi also raised the plight of more than 270 pro-democracy activists recently jailed for up to 104 years.

"She pointed out that the long prison sentences, such as 65 or 100 years, were handed down with no defence and no lawyers allowed," Nyan Win said.

From Reuters

Up to 100,000 Christian Chin who have fled to India in the past 20 years to escape persecution by Myanmar’s Buddhist military rulers are at risk of being forced back, Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday.

The New York-based rights said local authorities and community organisations in Mizoram frequently targeted Chin migrants, one of the former Burma’s many oppressed ethnic minorities.

“They live at the mercy of the local population,” HRW said in a report on the plight of the Chin, whose ancestral homes are in the mountainous reaches of northwest Myanmar.

“The Chin in Mizoram lack jobs, housing and affordable education,” HRW consultant Amy Alexander said, adding most were relegated to temporary, labour-intensive and low-paying jobs, earning around 100 rupees ($2) a day for 10 to 16-hour shifts.

The report comes at a time when attention has turned on the Rohingyas, another minority group in Myanmar, who have been fleeing abuse and harassment.

In the last two months, 550 Muslim Rohingyas are feared to have drowned after the Thai army forced 1,000 found in the Andaman Sea into wooden boats before towing out to international waters and cutting them adrift.

Despite relatively close ethnic ties between the Chin and Mizoram natives, tensions between the two populations regularly flared into anti-Chin pogroms, the HRW report said.

“Because they are stateless and marginalized and the poorest of the poor, they tend to be the scapegoat whenever there’s an incident at the border,” HRW researcher Sara Colm said.

The largest such campaign was in 2003, when the Young Mizo Association (YMA) forced 10,000 Chin back into Myanmar, HRW said.

In September 2008, the YMA issued an order for the Chin to leave Mizoram by the end of the month. The threat did not materialize, but it was enough for them to go into hiding, close their churches and wait till tensions were over, HRW said.

Such incidents showed India failing in its obligations to protect refugees or asylum seekers, Alexander said.

New Delhi has not signed the 1951 Refugee Convention but under international law, is bound by the principle of ‘nonrefoulement’, which protects migrants from being returned to any country where they could be persecuted.

In addition to what HRW described as “decades of systematic abuse” at the hands of the Myanmar army, the Chin’s woes have been compounded by a 2007 infestation of rats that destroyed huge swathes of crops and food stores.

A recent U.N. survey estimated that 40 percent of people in Chin State, Myanmar’s poorest, did not have enough food, increasing the number of people trying to leave the country.

Persecution of Chin People Continues

The Chin people, Christians living in the remote mountains of northwestern Myanmar, are subject to forced labor, torture, extrajudicial killings and religious persecution by the country's military regime, a human rights group said Wednesday.

The New York-based Human Right Watch said as many as 100,000 people have fled the Chin homeland into neighboring India, where they face abuse and the risk of being forced back into Myanmar.

"The Chin are unsafe in Burma and unprotected in India," a report from the group said. The report said the regime in Myanmar, also known as Burma, continues to commit atrocities against its other ethnic minorities.

Myanmar's ruling junta has been widely accused of widespread human rights violations in ethnic minority areas where anti-government insurgent groups are fighting for autonomy. The government has repeatedly denied such charges. An e-mailed request for comment on the new report was not immediately answered.

Chief Secretary Vanhela Pachau, a top official for India's Mizoram state, said he had not seen the report and could not comment.

"(The police) hit me in my mouth and broke my front teeth. They split my head open and I was bleeding badly. They also shocked me with electricity," the group quoted a Chin man accused of supporting the insurgents, who are small in number and largely ineffective.

He was one of some 140 Chin people interviewed by the human rights group from 2005 to 2008. The group said the names of those interviewed were withheld to prevent reprisals.

A number of people spoke of being forced out of their villages to serve as unpaid porters for the army or to build roads, sentry posts and army barracks.

Amy Alexander, a consultant for Human Rights Watch, told a news conference that insurgents of the Chin National Front also committed abuses such as extorting money from villagers to fund their operations.

Alexander said Myanmar's government, attempting to suppress minority cultures, was destroying churches, desecrating crosses, interfering with worship services by forcing Christians to work on Sundays and promoting Buddhism through threats and inducements. Some 90 percent of the Chin are Christians, most of them adherents to the American Baptist Church.

Ethnic insurgencies erupted in Myanmar in the late 1940s when the country gained independence from Great Britain.

Former junta member Gen. Khin Nyunt negotiated cease-fires with 17 of the insurgent groups before he was ousted by rival generals in 2004.

Among rebels still fighting are groups from the Karen, Karenni, Shan and Chin minorities.

At least half a million minority people have been internally displaced in eastern Myanmar as a result of the regime's brutal military campaigns while refugees continue to flee to the Thai-Myanmar border. More than 145,000 refugees receive international humanitarian assistance in Thai border camps.

Alexander said that some 30,000 Chin have also sought refuge in Malaysia while about 500 were living in Thai border camps.

From Compass Direct News

Burmese authorities last week [week of 12/01/09 -- see report below on 16 January] increased restrictions on Christian activity in the capital city of Rangoon and surrounding areas, including the closure of several churches, Compass sources confirmed yesterday.

Orders issued on Jan. 5 had already forced many Christians meeting in residential homes or apartments to cease gathering for worship. Officials last week ordered several major Rangoon churches, including Wather Hope Church, Emmanuel Church and the Assemblies of God Church, to cease holding services and continued enforcing the Jan. 5 ban on meetings held in unauthorized facilities.

In the late 1990s authorities stopped issuing permits for land purchase or the construction of new churches, leading many Burmese Christians to conduct services in rented apartments or office buildings, according to the Burmese news agency Mizzima.

The Kyauktada Township Peace and Development Council on Jan. 5 invited pastors from more than 100 Rangoon churches to a meeting where they were told to sign documents pledging to cease operation of their churches. About 50 pastors attended, according to Mizzima.

The documents threatened punishment, including potential jail terms and the sealing of church facilities, for pastors who refused to obey the closure orders.

Another local online news source, the Democratic Voice of Burma, claimed officials from the Ministry of Religious Affairs had summoned the owners of buildings where churches met and ordered them not to rent their properties to religious groups.

Mizzima quoted an unnamed Burmese Christian who claimed that 80 percent of churches in Rangoon were affected by the order.

History of Religious Repression

Some local Christians and international observers say the crackdown is related to Christian involvement in relief efforts for the victims of Cyclone Nargis, which hit Burma in May 2008.

Despite widespread devastation and loss of life, Burma’s reclusive government initially banned foreign aid but finally accepted it on condition that Burmese officials would distribute it. Christians, however, had responded immediately to the crisis, gathering relief supplies and transporting them to the Irrawaddy Delta region. Police or army officials stopped some groups, but many were allowed to proceed. At least one such group told Compass that officials likely feared the conversion of Buddhists who accepted aid from Christians.

The military junta ruling Burma promotes Buddhism at the expense of other minority religions, according to Paul A. Marshall’s 2008 Religious Freedom in the World. The country’s population is 82 percent Buddhist, 9 percent Christian and 4 percent Muslim, with traditional ethnic, Chinese and Hindu religions accounting for the rest.

The church closure orders may simply be an extension of Burma’s existing religious policies, which elevate Buddhism in an effort to solidify national identity. Burma ranks high on lists of religious and human rights violators at several watch organizations, including the U.S. State Department, Human Rights Watch, Freedom House and Open Doors.

Documents declaring the government’s intention to “stamp out” Christianity have circulated for some time. Rights organization Christian Solidarity Worldwide drew attention to one such document in a 2007 report entitled, “Carrying the Cross: The military regime’s campaign of restriction, discrimination and persecution against Christians in Burma.” The report summarized a 17-point document allegedly produced by an organization affiliated with the Ministry of Religious Affairs entitled, “Program to Destroy the Christian Religion in Burma.”

The first point in this document declared that, “There shall be no home where the Christian religion is practiced.”

A military dictatorship has ruled Burma since 1962. Following the takeover, the government renamed Burma as the Union of Myanmar and the capital city as Yangon, but many news agencies and government bodies continue to use the original names. When elections were held in 1988, with the opposing National League for Democracy clearly in the majority, the generals rejected the popular vote and used brute military force to cement their power throughout Burma. A similar show of force met hundreds of Buddhist monks who initiated mass anti-government protest rallies on the streets of Rangoon in September 2007.

While almost all Burmese citizens suffer under the regime, Christians are often singled out for specific attack or repression because of their perceived connections with the West.

Reports from various mission groups suggest Christianity is flourishing under the regime, but believers must be creative with their worship – particularly in rural areas. In reports confirmed by Compass, Christians in one state began photocopying Bibles to overcome restrictions on religious publications. Others baptized new Christians during the annual water festival, where citizens douse each other with buckets of water, ceremonially washing away the “sins” of the past year.

Heightened Security, Control

Rangoon residents say a much heavier security presence has been evident in the city since early January, when political activists began distributing anti-government leaflets, The Irrawaddy newspaper reported on Jan. 13. The leaflet drops may have contributed to the current crackdown on church gatherings, as generals suspect all organized groups of having a political agenda.

At a graduation of military students in Rangoon on Jan. 9, Vice-Senior Gen. Maung Aye, who is commander-in-chief of the army and deputy commander-in-chief of Defense Services, warned students to steadfastly uphold the country’s “Three Main National Causes” to prevent “recurrences of past bitter experiences.” The causes were listed as non-disintegration of the Union of Myanmar, non-disintegration of national solidarity and perpetuation of sovereignty.

The New Light of Myanmar, a government newspaper, reported the general as saying that, “You will have learned bitter lessons from a number of world events, in which certain States have become weaker … owing to external intervention in their conflicts.”

From The Irrawady

The Burmese government’s Press Scrutiny and Registration Division (PSRD) censored publication of a major part of US President Barack Obama’s inauguration speech in the Rangoon-based weekly journal The Voice, according to journalists in the former capital.

Sources said that the censorship board decided not to allow the publishing of parts of Obama’s inauguration speech that included sensitive political messages.

A part of the speech that was cut was: “To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.”

Burmese inside and outside the country circulated this part of the speech through the Internet and it was widely interpreted as a message to dictators, including Burma’s rulers.

A journalist in Rangoon said that Burma’s censorship board ordered the speech to be removed from the front page of The Voice, but it allowed the journal to publish stories and pictures of Obama in its inside pages.

Burma’s privately owned magazines and journals have widely covered news of Barack Obama since the presidential election campaign began. 

According to media sources in Burma, there was originally little harassment or any serious warnings from the notoriously fickle censorship board. But all publications have reportedly been careful not to cover sensitive material about the strained US-Burmese relationship.

Burma’s top military leader, Snr-Gen Than Shwe, formally congratulated the US president on his election victory.

Last week, the Agence-France Presse (AFP) news agency reported that the Burmese junta hopes that the new US president will change Washington's tough policy toward the military regime and end the "misunderstandings" of the past.

“Our two countries' relations have had some misunderstandings in the past with the Bush administration. Mr Obama needs to study our country's real situation so that he can change policy,” a Burmese official reportedly told AFP.

“There have been many mistakes in the past [in relations between the countries]. We have had misunderstandings. But now we are expecting good intentions,” he said. The official also accused former President Bush of making "one-sided" decisions.”

In spite of media restrictions, many people inside Burma watched the live televised coverage of Obama’s inauguration on satellite television. 

Rangoon-based media sources said that the PSRD was acting under the instructions of the Ministry of Information. The censorship board did not permit the publishing of articles related to Obama’s speech in other weekly journals, including The Yangon Times and True News.

Black Money Slowed To Trickle

The black market value of Burma's currency, the kyat, hit a three-year high of nearly 1,000 to the US dollar on Friday, putting a brake on the unofficial cash transfers from abroad known as hundi.

The kyat had been skyrocketing all week, reaching new highs against not only the dollar but also, on Wednesday, the Thai baht (25 kyat), Singapore dollar (714 kyat) and the Chinese yuan (1,639.34), according to hundi services in Bangkok, Singapore and at the Sino-Burmese border.

"We are surprised and shocked,” said one businessman running a hundi service in Bangkok. “Now our service has been halted, and we can’t say when we will restart it. We’ll just have to wait and see.”

The hundi is an underground banking system that uses a network of unofficial currency exchangers and money transmitters in Burma.

The lack of an active and efficient money transaction service run by international and local private financial institutions and untrustworthy government exchange rates cause Burmese expatriates and migrant workers to use the informal services.

Burmese expatriates contacted by The Irrawaddy said they didn’t want to transfer money home at the current rate. Experts said that a fall in remittances from abroad, together with rising unemployment among migrant workers, could have a dire effect on Burma’s rural economy, in which millions of people rely on hundi transfers.

Black market currency dealers, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the illicit nature of their work, said the soaring value of the kyat could not be ascribed to any single reason. The black market rate is linked not only to China's yuan, the US dollar and the price of gold, but also to the volume of border trade.

One observer in Rangoon said the global recession could be a factor because it had resulted in a halt to cross-border trade.

The price of gold in the country is meanwhile falling because of declining demand, according to gold shops in Rangoon. So far this month, the price for a tical of 24 carat gold has dropped from 525,000 kyat to 468,000 kyat. One tical is equal to 0.525 troy ounces.

"Consumers are not buying like before,” said one gold shop owner. “There are more sellers than buyers.”

Burmese Astrologer on Obama

YANGON: A top astrologer in Myanmar on Monday predicted ahead of Barack Obama’s inauguration that the US president-elect would win another term in office and that he would escape attempts to harm him.

“Obama will be definitely re-elected again. Leos are born to lead others. His card shows the emperor sign,” said San-Zarni Bo, 53, who gives daily predictions on a Myanmar FM radio station.

He said Obama’s birthday on August 4 means “the country will be developed under the leadership of number-four born Obama”.

But he warned that, according to his reading of the stars, there would be “certain assassination attempts” in 2009, 2010 and 2013 but that they would fail because of his birth date and horoscope.

“I can basically say all attempts will fail and be unsuccessful. But how can we say definitely without reading his palm?” he said.

He also warned of potential threats to incoming secretary of state Hillary Clinton.

“According to astrology, the arrow is pointing to Madam Clinton,” he said.

Numerology plays an important role in the daily life of this devoutly Buddhist country, where people turn to astrologers to determine the most auspicious times for weddings, travelling or making business deals.

Asked if Obama would help the people of military-ruled Myanmar – against whose junta Washington has imposed sanctions – San-Zarni Bo said people born on the fourth day of the month “stand on the side of the weak people”.

It will be interesting to see if Mr Obama speaks out for the weak tribal people who profess the Lord Jesus, regardless of what day of the month he was born. The people of Burma need action, not rhetoric and not superstition.

Military Junta Closing Churches

Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) has received reports of a serious crackdown on churches in Rangoon, the former capital of Burma.

According to the news agency Mizzima, local authorities in Rangoon have ordered at least 100 churches to stop holding worship services. Mizzima also reports that the order could affect as many as 80 per cent of churches in the city, and that 50 pastors were forced to sign at least five documents promising to cease church services. The pastors were reportedly warned they could be jailed if they disobeyed the order.

The campaign appears to be particularly targeted at churches meeting in apartment buildings, rather than churches that own their own building and land. According to a report by the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), officials from the local branch of the Ministry of Religious Affairs summoned the owners of buildings in which churches were meeting, and issued them with an order prohibiting the use of private property for religious purposes. “Christians are worried that they will not be allowed to worship anymore, even in their own house,” said one pastor in a report received by CSW.

One pastor in Rangoon, who cannot be named for security reasons, claimed in a report received by CSW that several churches have now been locked and sealed, including three churches in South Dagon Township: the Evangelical Baptist Church, the Karen Baptist Church and the Dagon Joshua Church. An eyewitness said that in one church, the pastor presented his Legal Registration Certificate provided by the Ministry of Religious Affairs to the authorities when they came to inform him of the new order. In response, officials told him his registration certificate had been withdrawn.

Some Christians believe that the immediate cause of the crackdown is church involvement in providing relief for victims of Cyclone Nargis, which devastated the area in May 2008. According to Shwekey Hoipang, a Chin pastor from Burma living in exile, the regime does not like the fact that Buddhists have been receiving help from churches, and fears this may possibly result in conversions. “The regime does not want Buddhists coming in and out of churches. It does not want Christianity to grow in Burma,” said Shwekey Hoipang. “Ultimately, the regime seeks the destruction of Christianity. This is part of a top-secret plan by the military to stop Christian growth.”

Burma is categorised as a ‘Country of Particular Concern’ by the US State Department, for its violations of religious freedom. In 2007, CSW published a report, Carrying the Cross: The military regime’s campaign of restriction, discrimination and persecution against Christians in Burma, which revealed a 17-point document allegedly from an organisation affiliated to the Ministry of Religious Affairs, titled “Programme to Destroy the Christian religion in Burma”. The first point states: “There shall be no home where the Christian religion is practised.”

Benedict Rogers, East Asia Team Leader at CSW and author of Carrying the Cross said: “There is no doubt that the regime is hostile to minority religions in Burma, particularly Christianity and Islam, and seeks to restrict and suppress them. This recent crackdown is an extremely worrying development and a serious violation of religious freedom. We urge the UN Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Religion and Belief, and the US Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, to put pressure on the Burmese junta to end these violations and to permit churches and other religious institutions to operate freely, in accordance with internationally-accepted norms of religious freedom.”

CSW is a human rights organisation which specialises in religious freedom, works on behalf of those persecuted for their Christian beliefs and promotes religious liberty for all.

Aung Shwe: Hope is totally lacking.

Associated Press: Myanmar's pro-democracy party marked the 61st anniversary of the country's independence from Great Britain on Sunday, saying it foresaw no hope for the military-ruled country.

At a ceremony inside the dilapidated headquarters of the opposition National League for Democracy, its chairman Aung Shwe also called for the release of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi and other party leaders.

Suu Kyi _ who has been under house arrest for more than 13 of the past 19 years _ put up a banner at the gate of her home quoting a speech her father, independence hero Gen. Aung San, had once given: 'Act decisively in the interest of the nation and the people.'

In a speech to about 250 party members and diplomats, Aung Shwe said that national unity is in disarray and that there is 'no harmony between the government and the governed.'

'Hope for the present and future of the country is totally lacking,' Aung Shwe said.

Myanmar gained independence from Britain on Jan. 4, 1948, after more than 120 years of colonial rule. It has been under harsh military rule since 1962.

Meanwhile, the leader of the military junta Senior Gen. Than Shwe warned that 'neocolonialists' were interfering in domestic affairs and inciting riots to undermine unity and stability.

'Neocolonialists' normally refers to Western nations that have been sharply critical of the regime's human rights record and brutal crackdowns on any protests.

The current junta emerged in 1988 after violently suppressing mass pro-democracy protests. It held a general election in 1990, but refused to recognize the results after a landslide victory by Suu Kyi's party.

Activists calling for release of Suu Kyi arrested

December 30, 2008

Nine activists were arrested in Myanmar's commercial capital Tuesday during a march calling for the release of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, witnesses said.

The eight men and one woman from Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party were grabbed and shoved into waiting trucks by plainclothes police officers outside the old parliament building in Yangon, witnesses said on condition of anonymity because of fear of government retribution.

The protesters started their march at the party's headquarters and walked silently along Yangon's main road for about 30 minutes before they were detained, witnesses said. Some carried a banner calling for Suu Kyi's release.

It was not immediately clear where the NLD members were taken.

NLD spokesman Nyan Win said he heard that female party member Htet Htet Oo Wei was among those who marched but he could not confirm her arrest.

Htet Htet Oo Wei has been arrested several times in the past and was detained for about a month in May after she and nearly 20 party members marched from party headquarters to Suu Kyi's house.

Suu Kyi _ the face of Myanmar's beleaguered opposition _ has been detained continuously since May 2003 despite a worldwide campaign calling on the country's military rulers to release her. Her house arrest was extended for another year in May.

Myanmar has been under military rule since 1962. The current junta came to power in 1988 after crushing a nationwide pro-democracy uprising.

It held elections in 1990 but refused to honor the results after Suu Kyi's party won a landslide victory. Since then, it has drafted a constitution that voters approved in May. It paves the way for elections in 2010.

Critics have dismissed the junta's democratic road map, saying it is little more than a veiled effort by the generals to remain the dominant force in politics.

From Associated Press release.

Mizzima Specializes in Burma-related News

New Delhi (Mizzima) – An unidentified gunman on Saturday shot dead an Indian from Manipur at his rented house in Kalemyo town of North-western Burma, police said.

The Manipuri, who had reportedly rented a house near St. Mary's Catholic Church in Pinlong ward of Kalemyo Town, was shot dead on December 19, at about 6:45 p.m., according to the police.
"It is true that a Manipuri [Indian] was shot dead on Saturday," a police officer at the Kalemyo police station in Sagaing division told Mizzima.

But the officer declined to give further details of the killing.
"We heard that a gunman shot him through the open window and fled on a motorcycle. The bullet hit him on the chest and he died," a local resident of the ward said.

Neighbours of the Manipuri (Indian) man said, he had reportedly moved into his rented house about three months ago, but with little contact with him, they failed to give details about his occupation, name and his stay and its legal status.

A source living in the same ward told Mizzima that the Manipuri man was a member of an insurgent group fighting against Indian authorities but was based in Burma.

The source, who requested anonymity for fear of reprisal, said the Manipuri man was set up in Kalemyo by an armed outfit in Manipur as a liaison person to deal with Burmese military officers and as a representative to purchase arms and ammunitions.

The source claimed that the Manipuri man was able to rent a house and stay in Kalemyo because of his connection with the Burmese Army, which has provided several Indian insurgent groups a safe haven in Burma.

Another source involved in arms smuggling across the international boundary said, most of the North-eastern Indian insurgents rely on Burma for supply of arms and ammunition. Earlier, the insurgents would wait for smugglers, who used Burma as a route to bring arms and ammunition up to the Indo-Burma border and purchase it.

But since early 2002, the source said, Manipuri insurgents are seen frequenting Mandalay, Burma's second largest city that connects China's border town of Ruili, and smugglers no longer need to supply arms.

"There are a lot of Manipuri insurgents residing in Burma's border towns like Tamu and Kalemyo. They are liaison persons who deal with Burmese Army officials and the key person to strike deals for arms," the source added.

A former arms smuggler, speaking to Mizzima on condition of anonymity said, "Some insurgent officers even marry local Burmese women and establish business in smuggling of arms and ammunitions."

He said, with a Chinese made AK-47 costing only about 1.5 million Kyat (Approximately USD 1100) in Kalemyo, it is a lucrative business as it can be sold off at an estimated Rs. 200,000 to insurgents on the Indo-Burma border. Currently, an Indian rupee is worth 25 Kyat.
Earlier, in 2005 and 2006, Mizzima's sources said that Manipuri insurgents were able to live in nearby forests in Tamu Township. But sources added many Indian insurgents are now seen in places as far as Kalemyo.

While Tamu Township is in the immediate border of India's Moreh town of Manipur state, Kalemyo is about 100 miles east of Tamu town and has a military brigade based in the town. It is also well connected with the rest of Burma including Mandalay and Rangoon through roadways as well as by flights.

19 North Korean Defectors Arrested in Myanmar

According to the International Herald Tribune Myanmar authorities arrested 19 North Korean defectors in a town near the border with Thailand, a government official said Saturday.

The arrests were made two weeks ago in Tachilek, a border town about 340 miles (550 kilometers) northeast of Yangon, the country's largest city, the official said on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media.

The detainees, including children and elderly women, will likely be tried for illegally entering the country, the official said.

"North Korean defectors usually travel though China to countries such as Myanmar, Laos, and Thailand" before making their way to South Korea, said a diplomat from the South Korean embassy, who spoke on condition of anonymity citing protocol.

The detainees could face two to three years in prison if they are charged with illegal entry, he said, adding that a request by the embassy to visit them has not been granted.

Thousands of people have fled North Korea in recent years, citing hunger and harsh political oppression. Many escape taking a risky land journey through China to Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries before seeking asylum in South Korea, which is home to nearly 14,000 North Korean defectors.

Myanmar severed relations with North Korea in 1983 following a bombing in Yangon by North Korean secret agents targeting former South Korean President Chun Doo-hwan. He was unhurt, but 21 people were killed.

The two countries have been quietly working to normalize relations for the past few years, and agreed to resume diplomatic ties in April 2007.

Myanmar Government Cancels 84 Tourism Shops

Chiang Mai, Thailand  - Eighty four tour and travel companies have been stripped off of their license by Burma’s directorate of Hotels and Tourism for failing to renew their license, officials said.

An official from the office the directorate of Hotels and Tourism told Mizzima that the license of the tour companies, which have been operating for two years, were cancelled as they failed to renew their license.

“Those that have been stripped off their license do not include popular tour companies. These companies are the ones that failed to report for more than two years, and defaulted in paying taxes,” the official at the directorate office of Hotels and tourism in Naypyitaw, Burma’s new capital, said.

The 84 tour companies are smaller operators among the over 500 tour companies operating in Burma.

“We issue a license for two years, and tour companies are required to renew them after two years. We can still accept it with a late fine for about six months. But these companies have disappeared for years. For some we don’t even know the addresses anymore,” the official added.

Sources in the tour industry said, the companies include a firm with foreign investments, and 20 companies that collaborate with foreign investors, while the rest are owned by local Burmese tour operators.

Tour companies in Burma have experienced a boom since mid-1990s, with the country receiving large numbers of foreign tourists. The lucrative business attracted private tour operators who rushed to apply for licenses and have effectively conducted tour operations.

However, the tourism industry suffered a jolt following the September 2007 monk-led protests, and smaller companies faced difficult times. Besides, more and more tourists avoided visiting Burma, when in May the ruling junta responded poorly to a natural disaster - Cyclone Nargis - that swept through Burma’s coastal divisions of Rangoon and Irrawaddy.

Following the devastation by the cyclone, the junta’s referendum on a draft constitution in May 2008, and the September 2007 mass protests, several private tour companies and smaller agencies folded up as the tourism business slid into doldrums.

An official of a Rangoon based Tour Company said, “Most of the tour companies that were stripped of their license are smaller companies that had rushed in when tourism boomed. It does not include those that are still actively doing business.”

“For those continuing in business, even if tourism is not doing as well as earlier, they are still able to survive and have not come to a point where they have to shut down operations,” the official added.

Chin Will Not Accept 2010 Election

The ethnic rebel group Chin National Front announced today they will not accept the junta’s planned general election scheduled for 2010.

The CNF passed the resolution during their Fourth Congress held on the Indo-Burma border from the 8th to the 13th of this month, according to the organization.

“We are facing real challenges in politics now. There may be changes too. So it is very important to us regarding how to respond to the 2010 election. We would like state our position on the election to the people in advance,” CNF General Secretary Paul Sitha told Mizzima.

The Congress also urged the Chin people to fulfill their wills and desires if they wish to compete in the election either through the establishment of a political party or as individuals.

The CNF said they do not accept the junta’s political roadmap and want only to pursue progress via the tripartite dialogue, which comprises various ethnic representatives and democratic forces in addition to the junta.

“We shall continue our protest against the SPDC’s [Burmese military government’s] roadmap. Especially I’d like to urge other opposition forces to join with us in this protest,” Paul Sitha said.

Before the backdrop of an exodus of many Chin nationals due to unjust restrictions, repressions and violations of fundamental rights by the junta, the CNF believes the Chin are faced with a national security crisis which must be resolved collectively by all ethnic Chin people at home and abroad, says the resolution.

The CNF, which is struggling for the establishment of a genuine federal union based on self-determination and equality for all ethnic people, was founded in May 1988 and maintains an armed wing called the Chin National Army which is based in the jungle on the Indo-Burma border.

The Congress also elected 13 members to the Central Committee, including Chairman Zing Cung, Vice-Chairman (1) Thomas Thangnou, Vice-Chairman (2) Thang Yen and General Secretary Paul Sitha.

The CNF convenes a Congress once every five years.

So Far Just Literature

Members of Burma’s battered and disparate opposition are growing disillusioned with the old methods of the pro-democracy movement and are seeking ways to escalate their armed struggle.

“There is a very real debate among us about how to begin a more sustained armed struggle,” an organizer of last September’s failed uprising told the Guardian. “We are ready for that kind of action, if we can get the supplies and training that we need.”

Speaking from exile in Thailand, Soe Aung, the chief spokesman for the National Council of the Union of Burma (NCUB), an umbrella group representing nearly all facets of Burma’s disparate opposition, said he was witnessing a significant shift in the public attitude across Burma.

“After the September uprising and then the terrible cyclone response, the anger is surging. Some are considering violent means … the Burmese people are not that kind of people, there has been a real change.”

Soe Aung spoke openly of how covert Western support, primarily from the US state department-funded National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and its subsidiary the International Republican Institute (IRI), had been fundamental to the success of the uprising.

“The US is certainly doing the most for the opposition. There has been real success in training and forming an underground movement through religious organizations and monastic organizations. These provide the best cover inside Burma. The monks can spread their training very effectively.”

The NED describes itself as a private organization but was created by, and remains accountable to, the US Congress. Set up under the Reagan administration in 1983, it has since played a leading role in influencing civil society and electoral processes in countries around the world unfriendly to US interests.

According to Brian Joseph, the man in charge of the group’s Burma project, the NED gave $3million to Burma in 2007. “We would send more, but there is a limit to what you can do in Burma,” said Joseph.

Opposition activists both inside and outside Burma largely describe the improvements in political awareness and spread of information as a result of NED-funded projects, but also attribute them to the introduction of the internet to Burma in 2003.

“We could see in September how the advances were utilized. It wasn’t just the monks but a massive increase of awareness among Burmese of all types. This was thanks largely due to media organs, the Democratic Voice of Burma, satellite TV, and, of course, the internet,” said Soe Aung.

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Press Release: National Council of the Union of Burma

The democratic movement of Burma will be challenging the credentials of the Burmese military junta at the 2008 United Nations General Assembly session and object to its right to represent Burma at the United Nations. Since the endeavor is aimed at prompting reforms in the country as well as protecting the people of Burma from the ruthless suppression of the junta, we call upon the nations of the world to cooperate with us and to extend their active support for the effort.

For decades, the people of Burma have been peacefully endeavoring for political reforms in the country but the successive military regimes been resorting to murder, intimidation, and oppression to overcome these endeavors and maintain their power through brute force. The State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), formerly known as the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), is commonly recognized to be one of the most repressive and secretive governments in the world. The SPDC refused to honor the results of the last legitimate elections in 1990, when Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won 80% of Parliamentary seats. Despite years of work by activists from both inside and outside Burma, efforts to foster a peaceful negotiated transition to a democratic civilian government have made little headway. To date, the junta's leadership has failed to honor any promises made with respect to democratic change and has instead increased measures to silence pro-democracy groups.

Over the last year, the international community has witnessed numerous demonstrations of the brutal and callous tactics the SPDC uses to maintain power, including the ruthless crackdown on peaceful monks and citizens calling for democratic reform in the Saffron Revolution; the disregard for human suffering in refusing international assistance following Cyclone Nargis; the illegal extension of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's confinement; and the fraudulent constitutional referendum conducted just days after Cyclone Nargis, even before the government assessed the damage from the storm. The injustice of these latest crimes is compounded when viewed in light of the junta's past atrocities, such as its violent repression of 1988 protests, its refusal to honor the 1990 elections, and its murder of NLD members in the 2003 Depayin massacre.

The most fundamental principle of democracy is that sovereignty rests with the people. Although the military junta has brutally oppressed the Burmese people and scoffed at the requests and demands of the international community, United Nations Member States have continued to extend the junta the privilege of illegally representing the people of Burma at the United Nations. Because the SPDC does not and cannot legitimately represent the state or people of Burma, it is now time to revoke its privilege of representing Burma to the United Nations.

The pro-democracy movement for Burma, united in coalition throughout the world, calls upon the Member States of the United Nations to stand up for the principles of democracy and human rights and reject the credentials of the SPDC's delegation to the United Nations during the upcoming session of the General Assembly.

Explosion July 1st

[Gleaned From Wire Services]

An explosion at dawn Tuesday rocked the office of a government-backed social welfare group whose members have been accused in attacks against Myanmar’s pro-democracy opposition, witnesses said. The witnesses, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of official reprisal, said the blast occurred at the office of Union Solidarity and Development Association office in the northern Yangon suburb of Shwepyithar. I have done a good bit of teaching in this industrial suburb. No casualties were reported.

Residents in Shwepyithar said riot police and security officials swarmed into the area after the explosion.

No further details were immediately available, and there were no immediate claims of responsibility. The government has not blamed any group for the bombing.

The USDA, a social welfare organization which was formed 15 years ago , claims to have more than 23 million members out of a national population of 57 million. Its members often have been accused of involvement in attacks against supporters of the pro-democracy opposition.

The organization, headed by junta chairman Senior Gen. Than Shwe, is to be transformed into a political party when general elections are held in 2010. Currently, the USDA is engaged in a wide range of social activities, from organizing health treatment in rural areas to planting trees.

The last explosion in Yangon, the country’s largest city, occurred in April when two bombs damaged some parked cars but caused no casualties.

The government often blames such attacks on anti-government dissident groups and separate ethnic rebels seeking autonomy.

Terrorism is rare but not unknown in Myanmar, which has been under military rule since 1962.

In 1990, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s party won a general election but was not allowed to take power by the military, which continues to tightly control the country.

Suu Kyi, who is currently under house arrest, has been in detention without trial for more than 12 of the past 18 years.

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From Irrawaddy

There have been persistent but unconfirmed reports that Gen Thura Shwe Mann, 60, will take over the powerful position of commander in chief in the near future.

Expectations were renewed after a major reshuffle in the armed forces last week. Several heads rolled within the bureaus of special operations and new regional commanders were appointed.

Speculation is rife that the junta leaders and their closest allies are already preparing for the 2010 election and beyond.

As for Than Shwe, he will not be stepping down just yet. However, he will be considering which of his two most trusted generals will ultimately succeed him as head of the armed forces—either Thura Shwe Mann or Lt-Gen Myint Swe.

Shwe Mann has been with Burma’s defense ministry since 2001 and many of his peers believe he is being groomed to fill the top spot as commander in chief, a position currently held by Than Shwe.

At present, Shwe Mann is the No 3 man in the military hierarchy and holds the title of joint chief of staff. But reports suggest that senior army leaders who were former heads of the Bureau of Special Operations have resisted his command.

However, those around him tread carefully; Shwe Mann is considered to be one of Than Shwe’s protégés.

Graduating from the Defense Services Academy’s Intake 11 in 1969, Shwe Mann rose steadily through the ranks of the officers’ corps, becoming a major in 1988. What involvement he had in the bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protestors that year remains unknown.

Shwe Mann earned the title “Thura,” meaning “bravery,” during offensive operations against the Karen National Liberation Army in 1989.

In 1991, he served as a tactical operations commander for Light Infantry Division (LID) 66, based in Prome, northern Bago Division.

By 1996, he had been promoted to brigadier-general and was appointed to oversee security in Rangoon as commander of the elite LID 11 based in Htauk Kyant, about 20 miles (32 km) west of the former capital.

One year later Shwe Mann got his big break. He was posted to Irrawaddy Division as commander of the Southwest Military Region as well as joining the fraternity as a de facto member of the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC). Traditionally, most senior leaders, including Than Shwe, are posted in the delta before becoming head of the armed forces.

After serving three years in the delta, Shwe Mann was promoted to major-general and became a permanent member of the SPDC. He was transferred to the defense ministry where he assumed the prestigious position of joint chief of staff, permitting him an oversight of all commanders from the army, navy and air force.

The following year, he was awarded the newly minted position of Tatmadaw Nyi Hnying Kutkae Yay Hmu or Coordiantor of Special Operations, Army, Navy and Airforce, a lofty title, from where he could also keep an eye on  the country’s bureaus of special operations.

In 2003, Shwe Mann was awarded his fourth star, reaching the rank of general.

Interestingly, very little has been heard from or about him in Burma’s official press since his attachment to the defense ministry.

Shwe Mann appears to shun the spotlight and rarely speaks in public. The one notable time he did make a public speech was when former premier Gen Khin Nyunt and his intelligence apparatus were purged from power in 2004.

“In the military everybody is liable for their failure to abide by the law. Nobody is above the law,” he told a gathering of businesspeople.

Burma’s aging military leadership is constantly searching for a young and trustworthy young gun to lead the country once they relinquish power. And the choice will not be Vice Snr-Gen Maung Aye, the current No 2, who is reportedly out of favor with Than Shwe.

Maung Aye, currently army chief and simultaneously deputy commander in chief of the armed forces is senior to Shwe Mann and a power struggle seems inevitable.

Observers speculate about how much real authority Shwe Mann really has. He runs day-to-day military affairs in the Ministry of Defense, but is allegedly bypassing Maung Aye and reporting directly to Than Shwe. In any case, if Maung Aye opposes promotion, it is unlikely Shwe Mann will reach the top post anytime soon.

Shwe Mann has a reputation of being down to earth and seems to have earned considerable respect among Burma’s foot soldiers, particularly those who served directly under his command.

He and his wife are also close to Than Shwe’s family on a personal basis, flying together on occasion to Singapore for shopping trips.

Like most of Burma’s top military leaders, Shwe Mann generally avoids talking about pro-democracy icon and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. Some observers believe that he has specific reasons for avoiding the topic. He is certainly cautious not to attack her publicly.

In fact, Shwe Mann has not yet shown his hand with regard to a broad range of social, economic and political issues. His vision for Burma’s future is quietly unclear.

He has been quoted as saying, however, that the country’s future leaders must have in-depth knowledge in two specific areas—gems and rice.

This belief would appear to bear the hallmarks of self-interest though, as his family is involved in rice exporting, or at least they were before the cyclone struck.

Rumored to be taking steps to modernize Burma’s antiquated rice mills to improve export production, Shwe Mann and his son, Aung Thet Mann, enjoy a close working relationship with junta business crony Tay Za.

Aung Thet Mann is a director at Ayer Shwe Wah, which in 2005 became the first private company to be allowed to export rice to Bangladesh and Singapore. The company is part of Tay Za’s Htoo Trading Company and both companies and their directors are on the US sanctions list.

In 2000, the government presented Ayer Shwe Wah with more than 30,000 acres of wetlands and rice paddy in the Irrawaddy delta region. The company also received lucrative government contracts to supply fertilizers to farmers throughout the delta and is involved in construction projects in the new administrative capital, Naypyidaw.

During the early days of the cyclone crisis, the Shwe Mann camp leaked news that he supported more international cooperation, more aid and more UN assistance. However, he was apparently stonewalled by hardliners Than Shwe and Maung Aye.

As a leader, Shwe Mann would listen and look toward economic reform, some businessmen in Rangoon have said.

There’s no doubt that if Shwe Mann rises to become commander in chief of the armed forces, many of his associates and Burmese businessmen would welcome the move. In fact, they are banking on him.

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Finally - UN Visas Approved

Myanmar's military rulers have approved visas for dozens of international relief workers and were allowing more foreigners into areas devastated by a cyclone that left millions in need of aid, the United Nations said Thursday.

It was an apparent sign that the isolationist regime planned to keep its promise to allow in humanitarian workers from all countries and give them access to the Irrawaddy delta, which took the brunt of the cyclone that landed May 2.

The last 45 pending visas were granted to U.N. staffers, while Save the Children, Doctors Without Borders and the U.N. Children's Fund have sent more than 14 workers in recent days into the delta region, a U.N. statement said.

Japan, which has so far donated $13 million in aid, sent a 23-member medical team to the country Thursday, the Foreign Ministry said in Tokyo.

"I went to some areas where no international relief personnel had been to, and the priorities for these people are food and shelter. We're going to be working very hard to deliver these items to them," Tony Banbury, regional head of the U.N. World Food Program, told AP Television News Thursday.

The storm left an estimated 2.4 million people in desperate need of food, shelter and medical care, according to the U.N. Myanmar's government says the cyclone killed 78,000 people and left 56,000 missing.

Myanmar's leaders are leery of foreign aid workers and international agencies, worrying they could weaken the junta's grip on power. The generals also don't want their people to see aid coming directly from countries like the U.S. that the junta has long treated as a hostile power.

They only allowed foreign aid workers in after U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon met with junta leader Senior Gen. Than Shwe last weekend.

But state-run media took a swipe at the foreign aid on Thursday, saying that people in the delta could survive on "fresh vegetables that grow wild in the fields and on protein-rich fish from the rivers" if they could not get "bars of chocolate donated by the international community."

Commentary in the Myanma Ahlin newspaper said that while the country welcomed international aid, "Myanmar people are self-reliant and can stand on their own without foreign assistance."

While not naming the agency, the article slammed a monetary institution, saying its refusal to extend loans or financial aid to cyclone victims was "an act of inhumanity."

While garnering some praise for opening up to the international aid community, global powers have voiced outrage at a decision by the government to extend the detention of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi just days after donors pledged large sums of money to help the cyclone victims.

Several countries, including the United States, Britain and France, issued biting statements about the regime's order to keep the Nobel peace laureate under house arrest for a sixth year.

"This measure testifies to the junta's absence of will to cooperate with the international community," French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said in a statement.

He called on Myanmar's government to "free without delay" Suu Kyi and other political prisoners and opposition members being held. Suu Kyi has been held for more than 12 of the past 18 years, becoming a symbol of the junta's intolerance of dissent.

Many nations critical of Myanmar's abuses had put politics aside to help survivors of Cyclone Nargis. Representatives from 50 nations pledged up to $150 million Sunday, while remaining quiet about Suu Kyi's plight.

The regime considers its biggest threat to be Suu Kyi, daughter of the country's martyred independence leader, Gen. Aung San. She was awarded her Nobel prize in 1991 for her nonviolent attempts at promoting democracy and is widely popular.

Under Myanmar law, people deemed security threats can be detained for a maximum of five years without trial. The regime has not officially announced its decision to extend Suu Kyi's detention or explain why it is violating its own law. An official confirmed the extension, but insisted on not being quoted by name because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Chris Beyrer in the Boston Globe Calls For Intervention

THE UNITED NATIONS estimates that more than 100,000 people may have been killed in the devastating cyclone in Burma and that some 220,000 are reported missing. But approaching three weeks after the storm, some 75 percent of the 3 million or more severely affected have yet to receive any food, water, shelter, medication for the sick, or means of escape from flooded regions. The Burmese junta has denied access for the delivery of humanitarian aid to all but a handful of outsiders.

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The next wave of dying is already underway, from thirst, starvation, untreated injuries, and infectious diseases. Major health threats for survivors include water-borne diseases such as typhoid, dysentery, cholera, and e. coli; food-borne diseases from eating poor or rotten food, compounded by the lack of cooking fuel and equipment; and the mosquito-borne diseases malaria and dengue fever, now compounded by the huge numbers of people sleeping outside and surrounded by water.

The international community is at a crucial moment of choice: Should the sovereignty of a regime bent on self-preservation trump the lives of those hundreds of thousands of civilians who are in serious peril because of its life-threatening actions?

Under the new doctrine of the "responsibility to protect," unanimously adopted by the General Assembly and Security Council, inherent in each state's sovereignty is a corresponding duty to protect one's own citizens from the most serious of human-rights abuses, including crimes against humanity. If a state is either unwilling or unable to protect its own citizens, the international community has an obligation to step in.

By its policy choices, the Burmese junta is magnifying the extent of the tragedy in a manner that is designed to sacrifice its own people on the altar of its very survival. Such conduct presents a prima facie case of crimes against humanity, under the category of so-called "other inhumane acts" intentionally causing great suffering or death. So far, Burma's allies on the Security Council, including China, Russia, and South Africa, have protected the junta from a robust international response.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon travels to Burma tomorrow to press the regime for greater access. Nevertheless, he has yet to receive any response from General Than Shwe to his calls and letters. ASEAN foreign ministers met Monday and issued a statement claiming that Burma agreed to allow swift access. But the international community should not be fooled by symbolic gestures from the junta such as approving nine helicopters from the World Food Program to fly in relief or granting visas to dozens of aid workers from surrounding countries. Progress is being made at a snail's pace in comparison to the massive need. What is required now is both a massive inflow of supplies and the expert aid workers needed to deliver relief on the scale this storm demands.

While these political discussions drag on and millions suffer, the junta is using the tragedy to its every advantage. ASEAN is now hosting what the Burmese have described as a "reconstruction" conference in Rangoon on Sunday. Yet how can one talk about reconstruction before the most basic needs of the people have yet to be met? And holding this conference on the same day that the house arrest of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi must be extended will no doubt be spun in junta propaganda as expressions of international approval for their policies.

If Ban and ASEAN cannot persuade the junta to yield in swift and meaningful ways then the United States, United Kingdom, and France need to press for a multilateral intervention supporting countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore in delivering massive quantities of aid, which Burma has purportedly agreed to allow. Such an Asian intervention should be less threatening than a Western one. But an intervention with or without the support of the junta is desperately needed.

While the Burmese junta has no qualms about sacrificing its own people, to stand idly by as thousands suffer and die would leave all of us with blood on our hands.

__________________

Chris Beyrer, a medical epidemiologist, directs the Center for Public Health and Human Rights at Johns Hopkins University. Jared Genser is president of Freedom Now and attorney for Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who remains under house arrest in Burma.