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BURMA RELATED NEWS - FEBRUARY 08, 2008
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HEADLINES
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AP - Democracy, human rights are Myanmar's internal affairs, new Thai
foreign minister says
AFP - New Thai PM urges UN chief to visit Myanmar
UPI - Six bucks, the value of a life in Burma
Asia Times - Regrettable apology for Myanmar
The New Nation - Im****t from India, Myanmar in pipeline: Rice market
to stabilise soon
UNPO - Freedom for Burma Now!
Irrawaddy - New Campaign to Boycott Burmese Businesses
IHT - Are sanctions the answer?
DVB News - Magwe NLD members stopped from travelling
DVB News - Town****p youth blackmailed into joining USDA
DVB News - Commentary: A limited time to play
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Democracy, human rights are Myanmar's internal affairs, new Thai
foreign minister says
AP - Friday, February 8
BANGKOK, Thailand - Thailand's newly elected government says it will
maintain a policy of noninterference in military-ruled Myanmar, and
that democracy and human rights are domestic issues.
Foreign Minister Noppadon Pattama said Thailand will work within the
framework of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations but
"will have to respect Myanmar's sovereignty."
Myanmar has been ruled by the military since 1962, and its ruling
junta is widely criticized for human rights abuses and failure to hand
over power to a democratically elected government.
Myanmar's crisis attracted world attention last September when
Buddhist monks led anti-government protests, the biggest in two
decades. The government detained thousands and killed at least 31
people, according to a U.N. investigator, whose tally was twice the
toll acknowledged by the junta.
"We are not a headmaster who can tell Myanmar to do this or that,"
Noppadon said Thursday in his first press conference since becoming
foreign minister. "The development of democracy and protection of
human rights are Myanmar's internal affairs."
Noppadon said that Thailand's new government will continue to work
alongside its neighbors in ASEAN but will focus on the issues that
directly affect Thailand, such as drug trafficking, bilateral trade
and illegal immigrants.
"If working through an ASEAN framework can help Myanmar's democracy
flourish, we will do it," he said.
ASEAN allowed Myanmar to join a decade ago, hoping that member****p
would inspire change in the country.
Following September's crackdown, Western countries tightened sanctions
against Myanmar's military government, but ASEAN countries have done
little to step up pressure.
During its November summit in Singa****e, the group failed to come up
with any action to push for democratic reform in Myanmar.
Thailand _ Myanmar's No. 2 trading partner and a major im****ter of its
natural gas _ and other ASEAN countries have been reluctant to
consider sanctions against Myanmar.
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New Thai PM urges UN chief to visit Myanmar
AFP - Friday, February 8
BANGKOK, Feb 8, 2008 (AFP) - Thailand's new prime minister on Friday
urged UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to make a personal visit to
Myanmar to press the military junta to accept international talks on
political reforms.
Premier Samak Sundaravej, who won elections in December to replace a
military-backed government, told a briefing for foreign media that he
believed "soft pressure" would push the generals in Myanmar to reform.
"Why don't we make a soft pressure by inviting Burma to come to talk,"
he said, referring to the country by its former name.
"If North Korea can be settled by talking... why not do something
here?" he said, referring to the six-party international talks aimed
at ending North Korea's nuclear weapons drive.
"It should start with the United Nations," Samak said, urging the UN
chief to visit Myanmar and Thailand to kick-start diplomatic efforts.
"Why, when he can go anywhere in the world, why can he not go to
Burma?".
Samak also defended Thailand's reliance on Myanmar for its energy
needs. The kingdom im****ts about 20 percent of its natural gas from
Myanmar, and is investing billions of dollars in building
hydroelectric dams there.
"We consume their gas. It's a benefit to the country. Is there any
political cause that we should not buy this gas?" Samak said.
Myanmar's junta sparked international outrage in September when it
launched a bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protests led by Buddhist
monks, who spearheaded the biggest challenge to military rule in
nearly two decades.
At least 31 people died in the crackdown, according to the United
Nations.
UN chief Ban has appointed a special envoy, Ibrahim Gambari, to try to
open a dialogue between the military and the pro-democracy opposition
led by detained Nobel peace prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi.
Gambari has paid two visits to the country, but when he asked to
return last month, the military put him off until April.
Samak's predecessor, army-installed prime minister Surayud Chulanont,
had also proposed international talks on Myanmar following the North
Korean six-party model.
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United Press International
Six bucks, the value of a life in Burma
By AWZAR THI
Column: Rule of Lords
Published: February 07, 2008
HONG KONG, China, For anyone grappling with the t***** problem of
assigning a financial value to human life, help is at hand. Insurance
ompanies of the world, rejoice: Burma's Defense Ministry has
definitively established that one life is worth a bit less than six US
dollars.
In November 2006 a low-ranking army officer came to the suburban
Rangoon home of a young mother. He told her that her husband had died
of malaria in a mountainous border region some three months before,
while serving an infantry battalion.
How Htun Htun Naing got there in the first place is unclear. He was
not a soldier. The 31-year-old had been arrested and imprisoned for
gambling. Apparently he had been taken from jail and sent to carry
materials for the military in the rugged war-ravaged east.
The government of Burma openly uses prisoners on labor projects. Home
Ministry publications include accounts and photographs of farms and
quarries where the workforce consists of inmates. Corrections
Department signboards dot roads around the countryside and criminal
sentences are typically for rigorous imprisonment.
However, the government has persistently denied that it uses convicts
as army ****ters, despite numerous re****ts to the contrary. Human
rights defenders claim that the number of prisoners used to carry
supplies has increased in recent years as the number of local
villagers forcibly conscripted to work has decreased. The videotaped
testimonies and wounds of escaped inmates are compelling evidence.
In any event, the officer visiting Htun Htun Naing's family advised
them that they should go to the concerned battalion's headquarters to
look into the matter. He collected some personal do***ents with which
to process the case but left them with nothing: neither a doctor's
re****t nor a medical certificate to verify his account.
Htun Htun Naing's wife, struggling to raise her three small children,
was in no position to travel to an army camp halfway across the
country. She continued her work as usual and waited to hear more.
So it was until the following year, when the family received a letter.
The form inside, dated Jan. 30 and issued by the ministry accounts
office, acknowledged the death/injury of U Htun Htun Naing, son of U
Myint Shwe, in the service of Infantry Battalion 250 based at Loikaw.
It informed the family that in accordance with an instruction from
operation headquarters, the amount of 7,200 kyat had been cleared for
payment as compensation by the Myanmar Economic Bank within the
financial year.
How did the ministry do its math? No criteria were given, nor
sup****ting do***ents affixed. The family still has not received
anything to prove that Htun Htun Naing really died as they have been
told, let alone details of how he ended up working for IB 250 in the
first place. All they have is this scrap of paper granting them a
miserable 7,200 kyat.
Their experience is very far removed from the global standards on
satisfactory redress for victims of rights abuses.
According to the United Nations principles on remedies and
reparations, adopted by the General Assembly in 2005, these should be
"adequate, effective, prompt and appropriate." Compensation should be
"pro****tional to the gravity of the ... harm suffered."
Gabriela Echeverria, a legal adviser to the group REDRESS, has written
that the principles "have been used as the basis for new remedies in
national and international fora" and have become "a standard for
governments when implementing administrative measures."
While this may be true of some countries in Europe, and perhaps
increasingly in the Americas, the notion that persons who have
suffered some wrongdoing at the hands of the state deserve appropriate
recompense, in addition to other remedies, is still remote to most
parts of Asia.
The government of Thailand offered the equivalent of around US$7,500
to each of the families of 92 dead and missing at the hands of the
army after the infamous Tak Bai incident of 2004; not one officer has
ever been prosecuted, despite overwhelming evidence of systemic
negligence.
In Nepal, the maximum amount that can be awarded to a torture victim
is a bit over US$1,000, no matter how serious the injuries suffered.
And whereas the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka had previously ordered that
victims of torture there be paid highly, in recent years it has
reduced the sums ordered to barely a few hundred dollars.
There are of course many opinions about the meaning of words like
"adequate" and "appropriate" when it comes to the pecuniary losses of
human rights abuse victims, but by any standards the payments to those
in Asia are paltry at best, and the payments to those in Burma, if
forthcoming at all, are evidently intended only to add insult to
injury.
Htun Htun Naing's family has made a complaint anyhow. They have not
dared to ask for justice or even more details of how he died. Just for
a review of the case and a little more money, please. So far they have
heard nothing. There seems little chance that they will. They may not
have proof of his death, but they have ample proof that in Burma life
really is cheap; perhaps even more so than anyone had imagined.
--
(Awzar Thi is the pen name of a member of the Asian Human Rights
Commission with over 15 years of experience as an advocate of human
rights and the rule of law in Thailand and Burma. His Rule of Lords
blog can be read at http://ratchasima.net)
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Asia Times - Feb 9, 2008
BOOK REVIEW
Regrettable apology for Myanmar
Promoting Human Rights in Burma by Morten B Pedersen
Reviewed by Bertil Lintner
This book patently fails to shed light on any certain period in
Myanmar's history, nor does it explain the background to any im****tant
current event. Rather, it is a book that makes one point: Western-led
trade, investment and financial sanctions against Myanmar, first
imposed in earnest in 1997 and most recently expanded last year, are
not working.
But even the arguments Danish academic Morten B Pedersen puts forward
are flawed and it is questionable whether the book should have been
published in its current form in light of the monk-led protests of
August and September 2007. Pedersen dismisses the Buddhist clergy as a
political force and in one throwaway passage refers to "the near
disappearance of open opposition by the monkhood".
Of course the anti-government street marches which began in August and
ended last September were often led by the clergy, which emerged as
the most potent force to oppose the military regime in recent years.
Despite that analytical blind spot, Pedersen, like so many other
Western academics who have concentrated on Myanmar, believes he has an
im****tant story to tell.
Pedersen is among the many proponents of "constructive engagement"
with Myanmar's ruling junta, based on the often simplistic argument
that over a decade of Western-led economic sanctions have failed to
dislodge the brutal regime from power and have only hurt the already
suffering general population. In his prescriptive book, Pedersen
clearly overestimates the degree of influence his or any other
academic's advice may have on the ruling generals, who history shows
nearly never take on outside Western counsel in running their
affairs.
Moreover, the book contains a number of factual errors which could
have been avoided with some very basic fact-checking. For instance,
the book's claim on page 138 that former student leader Min Ko Naing
set up the "old All-Burma Federation of Students' Unions" in August
1989 is wholly inaccurate. The ABFSU was in reality formed in August
1988 and by August 1989 Min Ko Naing had been arrested and was
langui****ng in solitary confinement in jail.
The interview with Min Ko Naing which Pedersen refers to in a footnote
to chapter three on page 171 did not appear in the "28 October 1989"
issue of Asiaweek, but rather on 28 October 1988. Nor did the
International Herald Tribune "in 1988 [break] the news that -
mistakenly as it were - that the UN and the World Bank were offering
the Myanmar government [US]$1 billion in financial assistance in
return for political reforms" as stated on page 222. That was 10 years
later, in 1998.
Pedersen's arguments for "promoting human rights" are also hard to
swallow. While admitting that the junta's commitments to a number of
international human rights conventions it has signed "still lack
substance", he seems to believe that "they provide access points for
international dialogue and capacity-building, and may begin to build a
constituency for change within the military state itself as military
and government officials assume formal responsibility for human rights
issues".
The junta's long history of brutal crackdowns and last year's opening
fire on street protestors makes this a remarkably naive if not
disingenuous statement, particularly considering the author has
claimed to have spent considerable time in Myanmar. While Pedersen
argues that the junta may reform itself by assuming more
responsibility for human rights, he controversially writes on page 51
that the many Thailand-based human-rights organizations have little or
no credibility because their "re****ts often are used to advance a
broader political agenda".
This raises the overarching question of just what kind of human rights
Pedersen is supposedly "promoting", as the title of the book suggests
- just those cataloguing atrocities without addressing the underlying
causes for the repression, in this case the incorrigible behavior of
one of the world's most brutal military regimes?
Pedersen also bizarrely takes issue with the Free Burma Movement's
having "engaged directly in lobbying governments and international
organizations to condemn or impose sanctions on the military
government". Through its umbrella organization, the Free Burma
Coalition, the pro-democracy movement has over the years helped to
persuade about 40 multinational companies to divest from Myanmar,
including ARCO, Texaco and PepsiCo.
By taking critical aim at the Free Burma Movement's efforts to urge
the international community to condemn human-rights violations in
Myanmar, Pedersen raises hard questions about his credibility as a
neutral critical observer. That's particularly true considering that
the military regime has in the past paid several Western lobbyists to
improve its battered and bruised international image.
Those multi-million dollar efforts have so far failed to sway Western
governments, including perhaps most crucially in Wa****ngton DC. In
April 2005, Pedersen and another academic apologist for the junta,
Robert Taylor, attended a "Burma Day" organized in Brussels by the
European Commission - and were met by angry Myanmar demonstrators who
re****tedly shouted "shame on you" at them. The duo had just jointly
authored a re****t criticizing sanctions and advocating more financial
assistance to the junta's various "social projects".
The controversial re****t caused "great irritation" within the European
Union and the choice of Taylor and Pedersen to write it was later
questioned at high levels inside the EU, according to the Chiang Mai-
based Irrawaddy magazine, which quoted a diplomatic source in April
2005. The magazine also re****ted that an outspoken British member of
the European Parliament, Glenys Kinnock, said, "I am dismayed that a
small and unrepresentative band of anti-sanctions lobbyists have been
given reign" at a meeting in Brussels.
This book is not going to enhance Pedersen's reputation among Myanmar
citizens who favor a return to democracy over the continuation of
corrupt and inept military rule. His arguments and conclusions are
also likely to be severely criticized by international human-rights
organizations for is grossly misleading title. Indeed, the book's
title fails to live up to its billing: how does cozying up to one of
the world's most brutal regimes precisely act to promote human
rights?
Promoting Human Rights in Burma: A Critique of Western Sanctions
Policy by Morten B Pedersen. Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham, Maryland,
2007. ISBN-10: 0742555593. Price US$75, 297 pages.
Bertil Lintner is a former correspondent with the Far Eastern Economic
Review. He is currently a writer with Asia-Pacific Media Services.
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The New Nation - February 9, 2008
Im****t from India, Myanmar in pipeline: Rice market to stabilise soon
Pulack Ghatack
The domestic rice market is expected to become stable within a short
time as the Government and the private traders have taken hectic moves
for im****ting the essential from India and Myanmar.
Some 9,62,470 tonnes of rice were im****ted through Benapole, Bhomra
and Darshana land-****ts in the last 7 months of the current fiscal
year, sources concerned said.
Rice traders are also im****ting 180,000 tonnes of white rice from
neighbouring Myanmar. Some 30,000 tonnes of rice has already been
****pped to Chittagong ****t and the rest will reach the country by
early March, they informed.
Benapole customs sources said that im****ters brought some 9,62,470
tonnes of rice into Bangladesh since July 2007 till January 3, 2008.
Rice traders im****ted some 2,16,622 tonnes of rice in January 2008 and
6,713 tonnes of rice were im****ted in the first three days of February
this year.
The first consignment of rice from India, in a state-to-state deal, is
expected to reach here by next week after New Delhi agreed to supply
the commodity at the rate of US$ 399 per tonne.
The cargo will start reaching Bangladesh by the end of the month after
the final approval of the decision by the two governments, officials
in Dhaka said on Thursday. The ****pment is expected to be completed by
late March.
Bangladesh and Indian officials fixed the price after four days of
talks in Kolkata on Wednesday. Bangladesh will im****t 500,000 tonnes
of non-basmati pre-boiled rice from India in a state-to-state deal.
"India's West Bengal Essential Commodities Supply Cor****ation Limited
will supply a total 500,000 tonnes of non-basmati pre-boiled rice with
average price at $399 per tonne," Food Secretary Mohammad Ayub Miah
told newsmen.
Dhaka would take steps to im****t rice through rail, road and river
ways after it received the necessary papers from Indian authorities,
he added.
India had recently lifted a ban on ex****t of rice up to 5.5 lakh
tonnes to Bangladesh following the attack of Cyclone Sidr that ravaged
the country's coastlines last year.
The cyclone and two spells of flooding in July-September destroyed
nearly 2.0 million tonnes of rice in the fields, according to official
estimates. The Government would im****t one million tonnes of rice to
cover the loss.
Inflation rate of food items in urban areas reached 15.77 per cent and
13.91 per cent in rural areas on point-to-point basis in December last
year shooting up further the prices of essentials, especially rice and
flour, Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics says.
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Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization
Freedom for Burma Now!
2008-02-08
DECLARATION
UNPO International Day of Action
11 February 2008
On the occasion of the second UNPO International Day of Action,
declared by the UNPO VIII General Assembly General Resolution to be
marked annually on 11 February, the date of UNPO's founding;
UNPO declares 11 February 2008 as a Day of Action, and the beginning
of a year-long focus, on issues relating to ongoing repression and
human rights abuses within the Union of Myanmar.
UNPO calls upon its Members to act in solidarity with their fellow
representatives in sup****ting, publicizing, and promoting not only the
plight of the Chin, Chittagong Hill Tracts, Karenni, Mon, and Shan,
but also those other peoples and nations who remain subjugated and
unrepresented within the borders of the Union of Myanmar as a result
of the official and unofficial policies and actions of the unelected
military junta.
UNPO urges its Members to sup****t international efforts to investigate
the cru****ng of pro-democracy protests in September 2007. In
addition, UNPO calls for the release of the hundreds of Burmese who
remain detained and at the risk of physical abuse from the Myanmar
state authorities.
Furthermore, UNPO exhorts the Myanmar authorities to demonstrate a
commitment to protecting its citizens' rights by ratifying all
outstanding international conventions intended to guarantee the human
rights of all nations and peoples from abuse.
Members are also urged to help the democratically elected National
League for Democracy to return Burma to democracy with representation
assured for all Burma's nations and peoples.
UNPO calls on the international community to sup****t any action and
activity that favors the establishment of a democratically elected
government in Burma.
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The Irrawaddy
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
sup****ters 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. "Sup****ting them keeps the
regime in power."
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The International Herald Tribune
Are sanctions the answer?
By Stanley A. Weiss
Published: February 8, 2008
YANGON, Myanmar: In the often black and white, good-versus-evil debate
over how to deal with the brutal military regime here, Ma Thanegi
lives in a world of gray.
To her admirers, the feisty 61-year-old Burmese painter and writer is
a voice of reason - a former assistant to opposition leader and Nobel
peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi who, after being jailed for three
years herself, bravely opposed Suu Kyi's misguided call for Western
economic sanctions to pressure the junta into relinqui****ng power.
To her critics in the democracy movement, Thanegi is a sellout who
parrots government propaganda to foreign tourists and journalists.
Meeting openly with me at a major hotel suggests that - with her
writings on Burmese culture and cuisine, not politics - she has little
to fear in the continuing crackdown on dissidents after the fall's
protests led by Buddhist monks.
In reality, Thanegi seems an equal op****tunity critic, which - with
the world out of options for dealing with the junta - makes hers a
voice worth hearing.
Expressing her hopes for "freedom of publication," she says that with
a military government "it's a given that they are very controlling and
rigid, not knowing anything about the running of the economy."
She slams "sycophants" in both government and the opposition who have
created "so much mistrust" that any real dialogue is "a pipe dream."
"I am not a traitor or a turncoat," she insists. "I wish with all my
heart that I had been wrong, that the strategy laid down by Suu Kyi,
who we love so much, was the right one." But Western sanctions are
"costing us jobs and hurting people, who need to eat on a daily
basis."
In brief, nervous encounters, ordinary Burmese - street vendors, taxi
drivers, tour guides, waiters - tell me much the same thing: "We love
Suu Kyi. We hate the military. But please, get rid of the sanctions."
For Maung Zarni, it's an especially "bitter pill" to admit that
sanctions have failed to moderate the regime. As a graduate student in
the United States a decade ago, his Free Burma Coalition led the
grassroots campaign for sanctions and divestment, which forced
cor****ations like PepsiCo and Texaco to leave Burma.
But we "failed to account for China and India," he says, explaining
why he began opposing sanctions. "We can't isolate a regime that's
trading and buying arms from the fastest growing economies in the
world."
He concedes that more foreign investment could further enrich the
criminal regime he opposes. But Zarni - who first befriended
Westerners as a young tourist guide in his native Mandalay - argues
that "this is a small price to pay in the short term for the longer
term benefit of creating jobs for farmers and workers."
"It's extremely politically incorrect to say it," he says, "but
economics, perhaps even more than politics, is the key to progress."
As in dictator****ps-turned-democracies like Indonesia, South Korea,
Taiwan and Chile, "economic reform could lead to political reform."
Thant Myint-U also challenges anti-sanctions orthodoxy. An historian
and grandson of former United Nations Secretary General U Thant, he
argues that "if over the last 15 years there had been trade and
investment, and not just increasing isolation from the West, there
could have been real economic growth and the emergence of much better
conditions for political change."
His thanks for speaking such common sense? A liberal U.S. magazine
lashed out at him for espousing a view that "justifies the junta's
policies" and "forestalls democracy."
Tragically, Myanmar now represents the worst of all possible worlds.
Having crushed the biggest challenge to its rule in two decades, the
junta - which sees itself as the only force able to prevent the
Balkanization of multi-ethnic Burma - seems in no mood to compromise,
if it ever was.
In a message this week, Suu Kyi, now under house arrest for 12 of the
past 18 years, urged sup****ters to "hope for the best, and prepare for
the worst."
The regime's worst enablers - neighbors and trade partners, especially
China, the junta's biggest military supplier - show no interest in
applying the economic pressure that might persuade the generals to
change course.
The United States and European Union, having already sanctioned
themselves out of influence over the junta, have imposed still more
sanctions that will likely push the generals even closer to Beijing.
Meanwhile, 55 million Burmese - including an estimated one million
ethnic refugees in the countryside - are trapped in a growing
humanitarian catastrophe of ethnic cleansing, disease, drugs,
malnutrition and forced labor, including as child soldiers.
"The landscape that's been created is exactly the landscape that will
keep things just as they are for a very long time," says Myint-U.
"And branding people as 'pro-junta' for trying to suggest different
ways forward only prevents the creative discussion we desperately need
if we don't want to be facing the same situation 20 years from now."
After a decade of experience, it's clear: economic sanctions on
Myanmar may feel right, but they have helped produce the wrong
results. Encouraging Western investment, trade and tourism may feel
wrong, but maybe - just maybe - could produce better results.
That might be politically incorrect, but at least it wouldn't be
politically futile.
Stanley A. Weiss is Founding Chairman of Business Executives for
National Security, a nonpartisan organization based in Wa****ngton.
*************************************************************
Magwe NLD members stopped from travelling
Feb 8, 2008 (DVB)-Local authorities in Magwe division tried to prevent
six National League for Democracy members from travelling to Yay Nan
Chaung for a religious ceremony on 4 February.
Dr Aung Moe Nyo, an NLD member and people's parliament representative
from Pwint Phyu town****p, was travelling with Saku town****p NLD member
Ko Nay Myo Kyaw and four other NLD members to Yay Nan Chaung to attend
a Buddhist ordination ceremony.
But Nay Myo Kyaw said that the group faced harassment from the
authorities when they tried to cross the river to get to Yay Nan
Chaung.
"When we arrived at the jetty, Kone Saung police chief U Sein Win,
district special police officer Ko Myint Thu and his informer Ko San
Wai were there and they made the boatmen to sign an agreement
promising not to take NLD members across the river," Nay Myo Kyaw
said.
"They told the boatmen that if they violated the agreement that would
face legal sanctions," he said.
After they were refused passage at the first jetty, the group walked
along the road to other villages to try to find a boat, but at each
jetty the boatmen had been warned not to take them.
At one village they found a boatman who agreed to take them, but when
they were half-way across the river the officials came and called the
boat back to shore.
The group eventually managed to find a boatwoman who agreed to ferry
them across to Yay Nan Chaung, but the boatwoman and her two family
members were then arrested at 10am on 5 February and taken to Salin
police station.
According to a Salin town****p NLD member, speaking on condition of
anonymity, the boatwoman and her two family members were detained
overnight at the police station and released yesterday.
Dr Aung Moe Nyo and five other NLD members previously faced harassment
from the authorities when they tried to travel to Yay Nan Chaung for
independence day celebrations.
The group was detained on 2 January to prevent them attending the
event, and the jetty was closed all day on 3 January to stop any other
NLD members from crossing the river.
Dr Aung Moe Nyo claimed that while in detention he overheard Peace and
Development Council chairman U Hla Htay instructing the police
official interrogating the group to keep the pressure on them and to
use har
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Town****p youth blackmailed into joining USDA
Feb 8, 2008 (DVB)-Residents of Ramree town****p in Arakan state have
complained that local authorities are refusing to approve road repairs
unless young people join the Union Solidarity and Development
Association.
Minister of trans****tation Thein Swe and the local military divisional
commander raised 7.5 million kyat to fund repairs to the road leading
to Gon Yan Taung pagoda, a town****p resident said.
"The military divisional commander and minister of trans****tation
raised 7.5 million kyat in funding to make life more comfortable for
pilgrims," said the resident.
"Then about one month later the town****p authorities announced that
they are not going to release the money unless all the youth in the
town****p join the USDA," he said.
The resident said that young people were unwilling to join the USDA
after its involvement in brutally cracking down on monks, students and
other protestors in the September demonstrations last year.
"The USDA has never done anything good for the country, and nobody
wants to join them," he said.
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Commentary: A limited time to play
Nyo Ohn Myint
Feb 8, 2008 (DVB)-Naypyidaw, the jungle capital of Burma, has been
very busy in past weeks with top advisers in greens and generals in
charge of internal security responsibilities.
Senior general Than Shwe re****tedly instructed them to find a short-
term solution to appease the angry and hungry Burmese people and
international players.
Before the Saffron Revolution, Than Shwe had tried to avoid a
political solution, but regional and international pressures have made
political engagement unavoidable.
The senior general has not given up, but is preparing better
political, social, and diplomatic strategies to achieve his own aims;
he has chosen general Ye Myint to approach and receive the sup****t of
ethnic ceasefire groups, while he has designated foreign minister Nyan
Win and prime minister Thein Sein to neutralize the mounting
international pressures and raise funds to combat the shortage of hard
currency.
U Aung Thaung and general Htay Oo have been given outright power to
control the domestic political and social turmoil, and U Aung Kyi has
been tasked to perform various magic tricks with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.
Consequently, Nyan Win approached India for financial assistance,
investments and bilateral cooperation in early January 2008. Along
with other issues, the main purpose of the discussion for the SPDC was
to seek financial assistance from India.
Perhaps China has indicated its unwillingness to provide financial and
political sup****t until it has successfully staged the Beijing Olympic
in August 2008.
Sources say that Than Shwe has limited his public appearances since
the Saffron Revolution last year. There is as hard-line an
undercurrent as ever in Burma, but interestingly, the generals who
oversee the military institutions have also disappeared from the
public scene.
Rumours spread that general Thura Shwe Mann, the front runner to be
the next SPDC leader, was even losing control over mid-level super
hardliners, as was the junta's second-in-command vice-senior general
Maung Aye.
It is crystal clear that Than Shwe and the hardliners tightly control
all power and decision-making processes.
U Aung Kyi has had both international and local audiences to play
with; providing false hope, diluting commitments, and most im****tantly
trying to marginalize Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's role as much as he could.
Than Shwe knows she has no option of refusing to meet with U Aung Kyi
if there is to be a political negotiation process.
Regardless of whether an agreement is reached, things will still be
dangerous. Indeed, Than Shwe has bunch of cards in his hands but time
may not allow him to play them, as a diplomat said.
In addition, there is no affinity between policy-making group of super
hardliners backed by decision-maker Than Shwe and the implementation
team or cabinet led by prime minister Thein Sein.
A few hardliners who are also cabinet ministers refuse to accept any
suggestions from Thein Sein, according to a close associate of the
regime. A para-SPDC cabinet and secondary security forces exist
alongside the official institutions, and this has caused problems.
A recent major challenge has been allocating funds for government
spending.
The army has made a request to replace two-decade-old Chinese-made
military hardware with more modern alternatives, but internal security
- run by super hardliners - has hesitated to approve the army's
request, believing small arms to be good enough for suppression.
Than Shwe may withdraw from the UN-initiated dialogue process with Daw
Aung San Suu Kyi if the international community fails to resume normal
humanitarian assistance.
He has used her image to get aid, assistance and contain possible
unrest; if this strategy is not working, why would he bother to send
someone to meet her?
Reducing the strength of the opposition is a very im****tant factor for
Than Shwe in ruling Burma, and so security forces continue to make
arrests, search activists door-to-door and put pressure on civilians.
The fabricated bombings in Burma over the last few weeks allowed the
regime to set up roadblocks, search political activists in the local
community and impose travel restrictions on opposition members.
Than Shwe's shadow cabinet and close associates are facing opposition
from different sectors of society, challenges from monks, and the
hostility of a new anti-government generation all within a limited
timeframe.
The more battlefronts he and his men have to fight on, the lesser
chance he has of winning each battle.
Even if they are successful, they will have to reshuffle the whole
army and SPDC for their future destiny while the country remains at
ground zero.
If not, and they fail to prove that a hard-line strategy is the most
efficient, a new generation army will take over power and determine
the role for the military to take in Burmese politics.
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