BI Weekly No. 357

September 23rd - September 29th, 2008

The BI Weekly archive is available on our website: www.burmaissues.org

Inside Burma

Border

International

Group of Friends call on Burma to release all political prisoners
8 Burmese to be granted refugee status in S. Korea
Britain to seek further sanctions on Burma
Chindwin dams deal to strengthen relationship between India and Burma

Monks demonstrate in Sittwe for ‘Saffron Revolution’ anniversary

About 150 Buddhist monks in Sittwe town in western Burma’s Arakan state staged a protest march on Saturday morning to observe the first anniversary of last year’s ‘Saffron Revolution’, eyewitness said.

Than Hlaing, a local resident of Sittwe town who witnessed the protest march told that about 150 monks began marching from the Sittwe main road at about 10 a.m. (local time). The demonstration was peaceful.

“The monks were marching silently. Police and other officials in several cars and motorcycles followed them and asked them why they were marching,” Than Hlaing said.

“People on the road were bowing and paying obeisance to the marching monks,” he added.

The monks, he said, took the right side and continued marching on to U Ottama till the end of the road. They dispersed peacefully later.

The monks were marching along the street in commemoration of the first anniversary of last year’s monk-led protests, that was brutally crushed by the ruling junta.

According to the UN, at least 31 people were killed while thousands of monks and activists were arrested and detained. But activists and opposition political groups said, the number of deaths following the junta’s brutal crackdown could be hundreds if not thousands.

“Monks protest in Sittwe, western Burma” Mizzima News, September 27, 2008

BACK TO TOP

3 more political prisoners freed

Three more political prisoners have been released by the Burmese military regime, bringing the total number of political detainees freed as part of the recent government amnesty to nine.

Ko Aung Khin of Indaw and Ko Maung Kyaw of Mawlu in Sagaing division were released from Kalay prison on Friday, along with criminal inmates, according to National League for Democracy information committee member U Nyan Win.

Formed major U Myint Lwin of Bago was also released from Insein prison on 23 September, the same day that U Win Tin and others were released.

Along with U Win Tin, U Khin Maung Swe, Dr Than Nyein, Daw May Win Myint, U Aung Soe Myint and U Aye Thein who were released last week, this brings the total of political detainees freed to nine.

The latest releases are believed to be part of the 9002 prisoners granted amnesty for good behaviour by the regime in preparation for the 2010 elections.

“Three more political prisoners released” Democratic Voice of Burma, September 29, 2008

Recently freed after 19 years in prison, Win Tin, who was on Saturday reappointed secretary of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) at an event marking the party’s 20th anniversary, used the occasion to call for the NLD to cooperate with ethnic leaders and pro-democracy groups in the fight for change in Burma.

“Win Tin said the fight for democracy hasn’t ended yet,” NLD spokesman Win Naing told The Irrawaddy. “He said the NLD alone can’t work it out. He said we need to cooperate together with ethnic and pro-democracy forces.”

Freed as part of a government amnesty, the NLD’s Win Tin and Khin Maung Swe were appointed to the party’s Central Executive Committee, while another released member, Than Nyein, was reassigned to his former position as vice-chairman of the Rangoon Division Organizing Committee, according to NLD spokesman Win Naing.

Before his 19 years in prison, Win Tin served as a secretary of the NLD and was senior advisor to detained leader Aung San Suu Kyi. He was arrested in 1989 and sentenced to a total of 20 years imprisonment on a series of trumped up charges, such as “instigation to civil disobedience” and “secretly publishing anti-government propaganda.”

He was released on September 23 along with 9,001 other prisoners, only a handful of whom are considered political prisoners. According to a Thailand-based human rights group, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma), there are more than 2,000 political prisoners still behind bars in Burma.

During the 20th anniversary ceremony in Rangoon, Win Tin called for the release of all political prisoners, including the detained Buddhist monks, Tin Oo of the NLD and leaders of the 88 Generation Students group—Min Ko Naing, Ko Ko Gyi and Htay Kywe.

“Opposition must cooperate: Win Tin” Irrawaddy, September 29,2008

BACK TO TOP

Package tour to cyclone battered Irrawaddy delta

Tourists can visit the and see the devastated communities firsthand starting in October.

A leading tourist agency in Southeast Asia, Exotissimo Travel, plans to introduce a “Heart of the Delta” tour which offers tourists access to communities hit by Cyclone Nargis, which battered the delta in May.

“We will start to accept bookings from tourists who are interested in visiting the Irrawaddy delta by the beginning of October,” said Su Su Tin, managing director of Exotissimo Myanmar in Rangoon.

Following the cyclone, Exotissimo Travel established an emergency fund that collected US $10,000 for survivors.

“We will take tourists to the storm affected areas to see the real situation with the people there,” said Su Su Tin. “We will also have a fund for tourists who want to make donations to the cyclone affected communities they visit.”

The idea of creating tours to visit devastated communities drew criticism from some in the travel industry.

A senior staff member at a tourist agency in Rangoon said, “It is inappropriate and unethical to take tourists to visit disadvantaged people from the cyclone affected areas for the profit of your businesses.”

“Package tour available to Irrawaddy Delta in October” Irrawaddy, September 29, 2008

A Burma-China border trade fair will be held in Burma's border trade zone of Muse in December this year involving four other neighboring countries, the local Weekly Eleven reported.

The three-day 8th border trade fair of the two countries, which will take place in the second week of December with unspecified date, will comprise 224 booths -- 107 from host Burma and 108 from China as well as 9 from Thailand, India, Bangladesh and Laos, the report said.

Displayed at the Burma booths will be products from the state sector represented by Livestock Breeding and Fishery Department, Ministries of Industry, Hotels and Tourism, and Agriculture and Irrigation as well as the private sector represented by the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Cooperatives and Muse-Nanhkam Border
Trade Association, it said.

Burma products mostly cover agricultural produces such as various beans and pulses, maize and sesame, marine products, rubber, furniture and gem items.

Seminars on investment participated by entrepreneurs from neighboring countries will also be attached, it said.

Since 2001, Burma-China border trade exhibitions have been held annually and alternately in respective border towns and the last event was in December 2007 in Jiegao, Ruili, a Chinese border town in Southwestern Yunnan province linking Burma's Muse, which is also known as the Muse 105th Mile Border Trade Zone.

According to Chinese official figures, in 2007, China-Burma bilateral trade hit 2.057 billion U.S. dollars, up 40.9 percent compared with 2006. Of the total, China's exports to Burma took 1.686 billion dollars, up 39.6 percent, while its import from Burma stood 371 million dollars, up 46.9 percent. China enjoyed a trade surplus of 1.315 billion dollars.

“Myanmar-China border trade fair to be held in Muse this year” Xinhua, September 29, 2008

Illegal rice export to Thai border

Rice traders in Myawaddy, opposite the Thai border town of Mae Sot, are illegally exporting hundreds of thousands of bags of rice to Thailand every week, according to sources in the local business community.

A businessman in Myawaddy said yesterday that there were around 10,000 sacks of rice piled on the Burmese side of the Moei River, which separates Mae Sot and Myawaddy, as traders waited for heavy rains to stop so they could resume the illegal export.

Burma’s junta officially banned the border rice trade after Cyclone Nargis struck the country’s Irrawaddy delta on May 2-3. The storm devastated much of the farmland in the region, which is Burma’s main rice-growing area.

A Burmese truck driver, speaking on condition of anonymity, estimated that there are around 30 trucks transporting rice from Moulmein to Myawaddy each day, each one carrying 500 to 700 bags of rice.

He added that rice traders pay bribes of 200 kyat (US $0.16) per bag of rice so the trucks can pass through checkpoints set up by a Burmese military battalion stationed at Thingannyinaung and by Karen ceasefire groups, including the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army and Karen Peace Force.

There has been strong demand for Burmese rice in Thailand this year, due to rising prices for domestically grown rice.

“Illegal Burmese rice exports boom on Thai Border” Irrawaddy, September 26,2008

Nations concerned about Burma called on its military government to release all political prisoners, including pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and to start talking with the opposition.

The so-called Group of Friends, which includes the United States, Britain, China, Southeast Asian countries and the European Union, also called on the junta to cooperate with the United Nations, which has tried with little success to nudge the regime toward engagement with its opponents. The nations met at the United Nations on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly's ministerial session.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who called the meeting, said in a statement afterward that it "is a clear signal of the importance that the international community attaches to the situation in Myanmar."

The Security Council and Ban had hoped Burma's ruling generals would respond to international pressure to embrace national reconciliation following its violent suppression of massive, anti-government protests in Rangoon last year, but so far they have not.

The Security Council has demanded that the military regime release all political prisoners, talk with the opposition, open the political process and end human rights abuses.

“Key nations call on Myanmar to release Suu Kyi” Associated Press, September 27,2008

BACK TO TOP

8 Burmese to be granted refugee status in S. Korea

South Korea’s Supreme Court ruled that eight men from Burma should be granted refugee status since they were likely to face political persecution if returned home.

The men, including Maung Zaw, filed for refugee status in 2005 after South Korea’s Justice Ministry ordered them to leave the country. A district court and the high court rejected their bid, saying they did not have a “well-founded fear of persecution” as required by the UN convention. The Supreme Court reversed the ruling because of their support for an underground opposition movement while in Burma and in Korea, Yonhap news agency said.

Maung Zaw, 39, is a former member of a student organization supporting the opposition movement led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

He came to Korea in 1994 on a forged passport and visa amid an increasing crackdown by the military junta. He and other compatriots formed a Seoul branch of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, often staging protests outside the Myanmar embassy.

“South Korean court says Myanmar refugees can stay” Agence France Presse, September 26, 2008

BACK TO TOP

Britain to seek further sanctions on Burma

Britain has admitted that it could seek further sanctions against the Burmese junta if it fails to improve its human rights record and deliver on promises over political reform.

World leaders and ministers are in New York this week in and around the United Nations as the Burmese people mark one year since the Saffron Revolution pro-democracy protests were brutally crushed.

European Union sanctions against the junta have so far seen imports of timber, metals, minerals and precious and semi-precious stones prohibited, while investment in these sectors has been banned.

Sanctions from the bloc are aligned against the junta itself and not its subjects, but the EU said that it would be "difficult to define tighter sanctions that target the repressive regime without harming the ordinary people of Burma".

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office told inthenews.co.uk the UK government "would support considering further sanctions if insufficient political progress in Burma is seen".

UK ministers are in New York pressing for Burma to remain on the Security Council agenda, with the status quo dubbed "inherently unstable".

“UK considers further Burma sanctions” The View (UK), September 26, 2008

BACK TO TOP

Chindwin dams deal to strengthen relationship between India and Burma

The Indian government believes its "strategic victory" in winning agreement to build two large hydropower dams on the Chindwin River is only the first of many such projects in Burma.

"The Chindwin holds huge hydropower potential and we intend to further strengthen this relationship by going in for other such projects in Myanmar," Jairam Ramesh, India's minister of state for power and commerce, declared in the Hindu News newspaper.

The Indian state-owned company National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) secured the rights to build a massive 1,200-megawatt hydrodam at Tamanthi, and a smaller 600-megawatt capacity system at Shwzaya in northwestern Chin State bordering India.

These developments match in size and cost the biggest hydrodam projects planned by Thai and Chinese firms on the Salween River on Burma's eastern border region.

Despite Burma's chronic electricity shortages, which lie at the heart of the country's underdevelopment, virtually all the electricity to be generated by these projects will be pumped abroad to India,  Thailand and China.

It has been estimated by some officials with Western human rights NGOs that the Tamanthi project alone would flood the town of Khamti on the border with India and force its 30,000 residents to move. An additional unknown number of people in more than 30 villages in the dam's flood area of about 7,000 hectares will also be forced to move, according to the German environmental group Urgewald.

“India's support for Burmese junta pays off” Irrawaddy, September 24,2008

BACK TO TOP