By MIN LWIN
The Irrawaddy News
Burma’s military government is organizing a census of Burmese families in southern Shan State with a view to forcing migrant workers to return to their hometowns to vote in May, say family members of workers employed in Thailand.
Earlier this month, according to sources form southern Shan State, local authorities and the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) drew up a plan to register all Burmese citizens for voting in the constitutional referendum in May.
Residents in southern Shan State said the authorities were demanding that family members contact migrant workers and tell them to come back and vote in the referendum. “The USDA and the local authorities are forcing the families to call back their relatives,” said a resident from Ponpakyin, southern Shan State.
“If the worker can’t come and fails to vote in May, the authorities will take them off the census list,” said another source from Ponpakyin.
"The local authorities are collecting the names of people who need temporary identity cards, which they will then use as a supporting list for the referendum," said a resident in Mong Pan, southern Shan State.
A migrant worker in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand, said that she and her friends will not return to their hometowns to vote in the referendum. “My mother was asked by the local authorities to call me to go back, but I can’t,” she said on condition of anonymity.
“My trip home isn’t easy,” the woman said. “The cost of returning to my hometown is 6,000 to 10,000 baht (US $188 to $313), which is three months salary.
Everyone over 18 is being issued a temporary national identity card, a doctor from Tachilek in Shan State said. "The temporary national identity cards issued by the immigration office are mainly for citizens to vote in the upcoming referendum.”
According to a resident of Ponpakyin, many young people who live near the Thai border go to work in Thailand after they finish their education. “Most youths, like me, come and work in Thailand because there are not enough jobs for us in Burma,” she said.
Hundreds of thousands of Burmese citizens live in Thailand. According to MAP foundation in Chiang Mai, 95 percent of the 121,488 workers who are registering for work permits in Chiang Mai are ethnic Shan.
Tuesday, 11 March 2008
DVB Under Fire for Independent Stance
By VIOLET CHO
The Irrawaddy News
As the exiled Democratic Voice of Burma matures into a seasoned news organization, serving audiences in Burma and abroad, some exiled politicians criticized its “independence” last week, calling for more advocacy views and opinions representing political opposition groups.
During a panel discussion on exiled media organized by the Democratic Voice of Burma in Bangkok last week, a lively debate emerged around DVB’s independent radio and television broadcast stations.
DVB was founded in 1992 by Burmese opposition groups and leading politicians in exile.
It became independent in 2003, with a commitment to become a professional news broadcast organization. Opposition group members no longer serve on its board of directors.
A non-profit organization based in Norway, it is operated by a Burmese staff. Its television station, created in 2005, was an influential source of news and information during the 2007 uprising.
Maung Maung, the general secretary of the National Council of Union of Burma, in a prepared speech, said Burmese opposition groups need a media outlet that clearly represents their views and visions.
“The democratic movement needs media that will spell out our political stands, priorities and actions to the people of Burma and the international community in a consistent way,” he said.
Maung Maung’s views found some support among some exiled politicians during the debate.
Maung Maung said he had been told many times that DVB donors insist on an ‘independent media’ operation at board meetings, but when the DVB was founded it clearly represented opposition political views. “Why has it changed?” he asked.
The DVB is “our radio station [opposition groups],” he said, adding, “It was accepted and acknowledged within Burma as the voice of democracy.”
“Daw Suu (Aung San Suu Kyi) supported the DVB for being the leading exiled broadcast media for democracy in Burma,” he said.
Responding to Maung Maung’s views, Aye Chan Naing, one of the founders of the DVB, said, “We are not going anywhere,” meaning that DVB is committed to the democracy movement, but he said it can best serve the movement by operating independently from opposition groups.
Khin Maung Win, a DVB manager, said that in the past, news and editorial content were heavily censored by the exiled Burmese government and some DVB operations were overly dependent on outside groups.
“We had to wait for a signature from a minister before we could buy batteries to operate the broadcasting equipment,” he said. “We have to be honest to our audience.”
One foreign observer said he believed the Burmese exiled media has “grown up,” but some exiled politicians continue to live in the Stone Age.
A number of Western diplomats and donors at the conference expressed dismay at Maung Maung’s views.
“It is worrying for Burma’s future [if exiled politicians come into power],” said one Western diplomat.
If the DVB doesn’t serve the needs of the opposition political groups, Maung Maung said he will set up a broadcast facility to advocate the views of opposition groups.
The Irrawaddy News
As the exiled Democratic Voice of Burma matures into a seasoned news organization, serving audiences in Burma and abroad, some exiled politicians criticized its “independence” last week, calling for more advocacy views and opinions representing political opposition groups.
During a panel discussion on exiled media organized by the Democratic Voice of Burma in Bangkok last week, a lively debate emerged around DVB’s independent radio and television broadcast stations.
DVB was founded in 1992 by Burmese opposition groups and leading politicians in exile.
It became independent in 2003, with a commitment to become a professional news broadcast organization. Opposition group members no longer serve on its board of directors.
A non-profit organization based in Norway, it is operated by a Burmese staff. Its television station, created in 2005, was an influential source of news and information during the 2007 uprising.
Maung Maung, the general secretary of the National Council of Union of Burma, in a prepared speech, said Burmese opposition groups need a media outlet that clearly represents their views and visions.
“The democratic movement needs media that will spell out our political stands, priorities and actions to the people of Burma and the international community in a consistent way,” he said.
Maung Maung’s views found some support among some exiled politicians during the debate.
Maung Maung said he had been told many times that DVB donors insist on an ‘independent media’ operation at board meetings, but when the DVB was founded it clearly represented opposition political views. “Why has it changed?” he asked.
The DVB is “our radio station [opposition groups],” he said, adding, “It was accepted and acknowledged within Burma as the voice of democracy.”
“Daw Suu (Aung San Suu Kyi) supported the DVB for being the leading exiled broadcast media for democracy in Burma,” he said.
Responding to Maung Maung’s views, Aye Chan Naing, one of the founders of the DVB, said, “We are not going anywhere,” meaning that DVB is committed to the democracy movement, but he said it can best serve the movement by operating independently from opposition groups.
Khin Maung Win, a DVB manager, said that in the past, news and editorial content were heavily censored by the exiled Burmese government and some DVB operations were overly dependent on outside groups.
“We had to wait for a signature from a minister before we could buy batteries to operate the broadcasting equipment,” he said. “We have to be honest to our audience.”
One foreign observer said he believed the Burmese exiled media has “grown up,” but some exiled politicians continue to live in the Stone Age.
A number of Western diplomats and donors at the conference expressed dismay at Maung Maung’s views.
“It is worrying for Burma’s future [if exiled politicians come into power],” said one Western diplomat.
If the DVB doesn’t serve the needs of the opposition political groups, Maung Maung said he will set up a broadcast facility to advocate the views of opposition groups.
Junta’s Snub Signals Failure of Gambari’s Mission
By WAI MOE
The Irrawaddy News
Burma’s military junta has spoken: there will be no role for the United Nations in determining the course of the country’s political transition to what it calls a “disciplined democracy.”
This is the message that the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) sent to the international community and the Burmese people through its treatment of the UN special envoy to Burma, Ibrahim Gambari.
The Nigerian diplomat, who has just completed his fifth visit to Burma, proposed a more inclusive process of political change in the country, and offered to send monitors to ensure that the outcome of the junta’s planned referendum on a draft constitution is accepted as legitimate. The junta said no to both suggestions.
Gambari met with National League for Democracy (NLD) leader Aung San Suu Kyi twice during his five-day trip, but was denied a meeting with the junta’s supreme leader, Snr-Gen Than Shwe. Instead, he met with members of the regime’s “Spokes Authoritative Team,” consisting of Information Minister Brig-Gen Kyaw Hsan, Foreign Minister Nyan Win and Culture Minister Maj-Gen Khin Aung Myint.
There were also brief meetings with other NLD leaders, representatives of ethnic groups, and officials from the pro-junta Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) and National Unity Party (NUP).
As he did during Gambari’s last visit to Burma in November 2007, Kyaw Hsan used the occasion of his latest meeting with the UN representative to send a clear message that the junta does not appreciate international interference in its affairs.
The state-run mouthpiece, The New Light of Myanmar, published the full text of Kyaw Hsan’s indignant reaction to Gambari’s role in releasing a statement from Aung San Suu Kyi following his last visit.
“Sadly, you went beyond your mandate,” said the information minister in his carefully worded reproach. “Some even believe that that you prepared the statement in advance and released it after coordinating with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi,” he added.
He went on to accuse the UN envoy of trying to “frame a pattern desired by western countries.”
Kyaw Hsan also took issue with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s calls for a more inclusive constitution-drafting process, pointing out that the NLD walked out of the National Convention two years after it first convened in 1993.
The constitution, finally completed last year, is in no further need of revision, insisted Kyaw Hsan. “The majority of the people do not demand to amend it,” he told Gambari.
But analysts say that most of delegates at the convention were handpicked by the junta and only a few representatives from political parties were allowed to attend the convention. Before the NLD walked out of the National Convention in November 2005, only 99 of the 702 delegates were elected officials.
After meeting with Kyaw Hsan’s team, Gambari met with a member of the commission responsible for holding the referendum, Thaung Nyunt, who flatly rejected a proposal for international monitoring of the forthcoming referendum in May.
“U Thaung Nyunt replied that holding the referendum for the constitution is within the State sovereignty. Besides, there were no instances of foreign observers monitoring events like a referendum,” said a report in The New Light of Myanmar.
U Lwin, secretary of the NLD, told The Irrawaddy on Saturday that Gambari explained to his party that he came to Burma with a mandate from the UN Security Council.
“He also told us about his meetings with the regime officials on previous days,” said U Lwin, who declined to provide any further details.
Meanwhile, observers in Burma said that the junta’s snub of Gambari showed that the generals were not interested in listening to the international community.
“It is very clear that they [the junta] will do everything their own way. No matter what the international community says, they negate all voices,” said a Burmese political observer in Rangoon, adding that the chances of a national reconciliation talks taking place now are non-existent.
“It is time for Burma’s people to decide how to react to the junta,” he added.
Other observers said it was time for the international community to send a stronger message to the junta through a UN Security Council resolution.
Aye Thar Aung, an Arakan leader, told The Irrawaddy on Saturday that the military junta will only cooperate with proposals which support their stands. “Dialogues between Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the junta official, Aung Kyi, were just a kind of cosmetic approach under pressure from Burmese people and the international community,” he said.
“The UN Security Council should really do something,” he added.
Larry Jagan, a British journalist who specializes in reporting on Burmese issues, also said that the junta has clearly demonstrated its indifference to international opinion.
“It is clear from Kyaw Hsan’s lecture that the regime is little interested in the international community’s concerns,” Jagan told The Irrawaddy on Saturday. “The UN is not being imaginative enough to try and expand a UN role around Mr Gambari. So I think the UN role in Burma in the area of mediation is effectively finished,” he said.
“What they would be worried about is the Burma issue will be raised again in the United Nations Security Council,” Jagan added.
The Irrawaddy News
Burma’s military junta has spoken: there will be no role for the United Nations in determining the course of the country’s political transition to what it calls a “disciplined democracy.”
This is the message that the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) sent to the international community and the Burmese people through its treatment of the UN special envoy to Burma, Ibrahim Gambari.
The Nigerian diplomat, who has just completed his fifth visit to Burma, proposed a more inclusive process of political change in the country, and offered to send monitors to ensure that the outcome of the junta’s planned referendum on a draft constitution is accepted as legitimate. The junta said no to both suggestions.
Gambari met with National League for Democracy (NLD) leader Aung San Suu Kyi twice during his five-day trip, but was denied a meeting with the junta’s supreme leader, Snr-Gen Than Shwe. Instead, he met with members of the regime’s “Spokes Authoritative Team,” consisting of Information Minister Brig-Gen Kyaw Hsan, Foreign Minister Nyan Win and Culture Minister Maj-Gen Khin Aung Myint.
There were also brief meetings with other NLD leaders, representatives of ethnic groups, and officials from the pro-junta Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) and National Unity Party (NUP).
As he did during Gambari’s last visit to Burma in November 2007, Kyaw Hsan used the occasion of his latest meeting with the UN representative to send a clear message that the junta does not appreciate international interference in its affairs.
The state-run mouthpiece, The New Light of Myanmar, published the full text of Kyaw Hsan’s indignant reaction to Gambari’s role in releasing a statement from Aung San Suu Kyi following his last visit.
“Sadly, you went beyond your mandate,” said the information minister in his carefully worded reproach. “Some even believe that that you prepared the statement in advance and released it after coordinating with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi,” he added.
He went on to accuse the UN envoy of trying to “frame a pattern desired by western countries.”
Kyaw Hsan also took issue with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s calls for a more inclusive constitution-drafting process, pointing out that the NLD walked out of the National Convention two years after it first convened in 1993.
The constitution, finally completed last year, is in no further need of revision, insisted Kyaw Hsan. “The majority of the people do not demand to amend it,” he told Gambari.
But analysts say that most of delegates at the convention were handpicked by the junta and only a few representatives from political parties were allowed to attend the convention. Before the NLD walked out of the National Convention in November 2005, only 99 of the 702 delegates were elected officials.
After meeting with Kyaw Hsan’s team, Gambari met with a member of the commission responsible for holding the referendum, Thaung Nyunt, who flatly rejected a proposal for international monitoring of the forthcoming referendum in May.
“U Thaung Nyunt replied that holding the referendum for the constitution is within the State sovereignty. Besides, there were no instances of foreign observers monitoring events like a referendum,” said a report in The New Light of Myanmar.
U Lwin, secretary of the NLD, told The Irrawaddy on Saturday that Gambari explained to his party that he came to Burma with a mandate from the UN Security Council.
“He also told us about his meetings with the regime officials on previous days,” said U Lwin, who declined to provide any further details.
Meanwhile, observers in Burma said that the junta’s snub of Gambari showed that the generals were not interested in listening to the international community.
“It is very clear that they [the junta] will do everything their own way. No matter what the international community says, they negate all voices,” said a Burmese political observer in Rangoon, adding that the chances of a national reconciliation talks taking place now are non-existent.
“It is time for Burma’s people to decide how to react to the junta,” he added.
Other observers said it was time for the international community to send a stronger message to the junta through a UN Security Council resolution.
Aye Thar Aung, an Arakan leader, told The Irrawaddy on Saturday that the military junta will only cooperate with proposals which support their stands. “Dialogues between Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the junta official, Aung Kyi, were just a kind of cosmetic approach under pressure from Burmese people and the international community,” he said.
“The UN Security Council should really do something,” he added.
Larry Jagan, a British journalist who specializes in reporting on Burmese issues, also said that the junta has clearly demonstrated its indifference to international opinion.
“It is clear from Kyaw Hsan’s lecture that the regime is little interested in the international community’s concerns,” Jagan told The Irrawaddy on Saturday. “The UN is not being imaginative enough to try and expand a UN role around Mr Gambari. So I think the UN role in Burma in the area of mediation is effectively finished,” he said.
“What they would be worried about is the Burma issue will be raised again in the United Nations Security Council,” Jagan added.
Zimbabwe wanted isolation, says C’wealth chief
March 11, 2008, LONDON - Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon likened Zimbabwe yesterday to North Korea or Myanmar, saying the southern African country wanted to be isolated. McKinnon, who steps down next month after eight years at the helm of the 53-nation group of mostly ex-British colonies, said the Commonwealth had done all it could over Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe left the Commonwealth in 2003 and calls the organisation a stooge of British neo-imperialism. He is standing for re-election on March 29, accused by rivals of wrecking Zimbabwe's economy.
The United Nations, the World Bank, Britain and the United States had also done all they could over Zimbabwe, McKinnon said. "Everyone was limited by what Zimbabwe did or did not want to do," he told reporters at an event marking Commonwealth Day.
"Regretfully, Zimbabwe, for many countries, has pushed themselves into this situation not dissimilar to Myanmar or North Korea where they just want to be isolated," he said.
North Korea agreed last year to dismantle its nuclear programme in exchange for aid and steps to end its isolation. Myanmar's military rulers remain cut off from the West.
Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe left the Commonwealth in 2003 and calls the organisation a stooge of British neo-imperialism. He is standing for re-election on March 29, accused by rivals of wrecking Zimbabwe's economy.
The United Nations, the World Bank, Britain and the United States had also done all they could over Zimbabwe, McKinnon said. "Everyone was limited by what Zimbabwe did or did not want to do," he told reporters at an event marking Commonwealth Day.
"Regretfully, Zimbabwe, for many countries, has pushed themselves into this situation not dissimilar to Myanmar or North Korea where they just want to be isolated," he said.
North Korea agreed last year to dismantle its nuclear programme in exchange for aid and steps to end its isolation. Myanmar's military rulers remain cut off from the West.
Source: Peninsula Qatar - Reuters
U.N. Special Envoy Fails To Meet Myanmar Leader
(RTTNews) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban ki-Moon's special envoy to Myanmar, Ibrahim Gambari, ended his latest and third visit to the military ruled country without meeting junta leader Than Shwe.
However, Gambari was allowed to meet with Nobel peace prizewinner Aung San Suu Kyi on Saturday and again Monday as well as the information minister, Brigadier General Kyaw Hsan, and several junior ministers, but requests for talks with top generals were declined.
No details on Gambari's talks Suu Kyi and Hsan have been released and Gambari also did not make any comments before boarding the flight to Singapore.
During his trip, Gambari had hoped to discuss the junta's recent announcement that it would hold a referendum in May on its plans to move towards democracy. The process is due to lead to democratic elections in 2010, although opposition groups have cast doubt on whether the government will stick to its pledges.
Gambari arrived in Singapore late Monday on his way to Senegal to brief U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon, who will be in the African country this week, his spokeswoman, Hua Jiang said.
Gambari has been pressing Myanmar's authorities for political reforms and to include the Nobel peace prizewinner in its plans to hold a referendum in May that is meant to pave the way for multiparty elections in 2010.
The junta, however, has publicly rebuffed Gambari's calls for political reforms and also rejected his call for independent observers to monitor a referendum on the new constitution.
It also refused to consider amending the constitution to allow Aung San Suu Kyi to take part in proposed elections and accused Gambari of being biased in favor of Aung San Suu Kyi.
This was Gambari's third visit to Burma since the security forces waged a bloody crackdown on anti-government protests led by Buddhist monks in September, when the United Nations estimates at least 31 people were killed.
However, Gambari was allowed to meet with Nobel peace prizewinner Aung San Suu Kyi on Saturday and again Monday as well as the information minister, Brigadier General Kyaw Hsan, and several junior ministers, but requests for talks with top generals were declined.
No details on Gambari's talks Suu Kyi and Hsan have been released and Gambari also did not make any comments before boarding the flight to Singapore.
During his trip, Gambari had hoped to discuss the junta's recent announcement that it would hold a referendum in May on its plans to move towards democracy. The process is due to lead to democratic elections in 2010, although opposition groups have cast doubt on whether the government will stick to its pledges.
Gambari arrived in Singapore late Monday on his way to Senegal to brief U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon, who will be in the African country this week, his spokeswoman, Hua Jiang said.
Gambari has been pressing Myanmar's authorities for political reforms and to include the Nobel peace prizewinner in its plans to hold a referendum in May that is meant to pave the way for multiparty elections in 2010.
The junta, however, has publicly rebuffed Gambari's calls for political reforms and also rejected his call for independent observers to monitor a referendum on the new constitution.
It also refused to consider amending the constitution to allow Aung San Suu Kyi to take part in proposed elections and accused Gambari of being biased in favor of Aung San Suu Kyi.
This was Gambari's third visit to Burma since the security forces waged a bloody crackdown on anti-government protests led by Buddhist monks in September, when the United Nations estimates at least 31 people were killed.
Source: Nasdaq News
UN envoy wraps up Myanmar visit by meeting with democracy leader Suu Kyi
March 11, 2008 - YANGON, Myanmar (AP): The U.N.'s special envoy to Myanmar met detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi before wrapping up his latest trip to the military-ruled country, a visit marred by the junta chief's refusal to meet him.
Ibrahim Gambari met Suu Kyi for almost an hour Monday at a state guest house near her lakeside home in Yangon, Myanmar's largest city. Gambari had also met Saturday with Suu Kyi, who has been detained for 12 of the past 18 years. Details of the meeting have not be made public.
After the session with Suu Kyi, Gambari met for a second time with the regime's information minister, Kyaw Hsan, according to state radio and television.
Gambari failed to meet with junta chairman Senior Gen. Than Shwe, though such a meeting had been described by the United Nations as one of the main goals of Gambari's five-day visit.
Than Shwe also refused to meet Gambari during his last visit in November.
During Gambari's visit, the junta rejected U.N. suggestions that it amend its "roadmap to democracy" to include input from the country's pro-democracy movement and other parties.
It also turned down other suggestions to foster political reconciliation, such as accelerating a dialogue with Suu Kyi and freeing political prisoners.
"The junta's roadmap process is the most suitable and appropriate method toward achieving a smooth and peaceful transition toward democracy," Kyaw Hsan was quoted as saying Monday on state television.
Kyaw Hsan, who headed the team set up to talk to Gambari about the democratization process, said the government has taken all necessary measures to make Myanmar's political transition process all inclusive.
"If the U.N. cooperates with the process, Myanmar will be able to achieve its democratic goal desired by the U.N., the international community, the people and dissidents," he said.
Gambari departed late Monday, according to a statement from the U.N. office in Myanmar, which added that he will be reporting on his mission to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. The U.N. released no details about Gambari's meetings.
Gambari arrived in Myanmar last Thursday on his third mission to broker political reconciliation efforts and urge democratic reforms since the junta's crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in September sparked a global outcry.
Source: International Herald Tribune
Ibrahim Gambari met Suu Kyi for almost an hour Monday at a state guest house near her lakeside home in Yangon, Myanmar's largest city. Gambari had also met Saturday with Suu Kyi, who has been detained for 12 of the past 18 years. Details of the meeting have not be made public.
After the session with Suu Kyi, Gambari met for a second time with the regime's information minister, Kyaw Hsan, according to state radio and television.
Gambari failed to meet with junta chairman Senior Gen. Than Shwe, though such a meeting had been described by the United Nations as one of the main goals of Gambari's five-day visit.
Than Shwe also refused to meet Gambari during his last visit in November.
During Gambari's visit, the junta rejected U.N. suggestions that it amend its "roadmap to democracy" to include input from the country's pro-democracy movement and other parties.
It also turned down other suggestions to foster political reconciliation, such as accelerating a dialogue with Suu Kyi and freeing political prisoners.
"The junta's roadmap process is the most suitable and appropriate method toward achieving a smooth and peaceful transition toward democracy," Kyaw Hsan was quoted as saying Monday on state television.
Kyaw Hsan, who headed the team set up to talk to Gambari about the democratization process, said the government has taken all necessary measures to make Myanmar's political transition process all inclusive.
"If the U.N. cooperates with the process, Myanmar will be able to achieve its democratic goal desired by the U.N., the international community, the people and dissidents," he said.
Gambari departed late Monday, according to a statement from the U.N. office in Myanmar, which added that he will be reporting on his mission to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. The U.N. released no details about Gambari's meetings.
Gambari arrived in Myanmar last Thursday on his third mission to broker political reconciliation efforts and urge democratic reforms since the junta's crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in September sparked a global outcry.
Source: International Herald Tribune
Myanmar's monks still seething
By Ed Cropley
Editing by Michael Battye and Megan Goldin
March 11, 2008, MANDALAY, Myanmar - Beneath the veneer of serenity and religious devotion, Myanmar's maroon-robed Buddhist monks, the engine of the protests six months ago against the ruling junta, are seething with rage.
Some talk impetuously of revolution. Others even say they are ready to lay down their lives in a repeat showdown between the monkhood, the former Burma's highest moral authority, and the raw might of the military.
But pro-democracy campaigners and even some monks admit the regime's bloody crackdown on the September marches has broken the clandestine network that, albeit briefly, turned the country's 500,000 Buddhist monks into a potent political force.
Even the approach of the numerologically auspicious August 8, 2008 -- the 20th anniversary of the brutally suppressed 8-8-88 anti-junta uprising -- looks unlikely to precipitate another challenge to 46 years of unbroken army rule.
"There are no plans being made because most of the active monks are in prison or have fled," a leading member of the pro-democracy underground told Reuters at a safe house in Yangon, the former capital.
Among the 80 people the junta says it is still holding after the protests are 21 monks, including 27-year-old U Gambira, a leader of the All-Burmese Monks Alliance which played a prominent role in the marches.
Human rights group Amnesty International said in January that 700 people arrested in the crackdown remained behind bars.
TINDER-BOXES
Despite the arrests, the southeast Asian nation's monasteries, some of which are home to as many as 3,000 mainly young men at any one time, remain political tinder-boxes that could re-ignite at the slightest provocation.
At least 31 people were killed when the junta sent in troops to crush the marches in September, but this United Nations death toll does not include any monks, despite reports of several beaten to death when soldiers stormed monasteries in Yangon and elsewhere.
Dissident Web sites also posted pictures of mutilated corpses of what appeared to be monks, spurring the deepest possible outrage amongst clergy and lay people alike.
No monks interviewed by Reuters in the religious centres of Yangon, Mandalay and nearby Sagaing said they had lifted their ban on accepting alms from members of the military junta or their families.
Known as "patam nikkuijana kamma" or "turning over the alms bowl" in Pali, the ancient language of the Theravada Buddhist priesthood, the 2,500-year-old rite is similar to the Christian notion of excommunication and is taken very seriously.
It can be rescinded at any moment if the perceived wrong-doers apologize and mend their ways -- something the generals have steadfastly refused to do.
"If they do not apologize, we will start our movement," a young monk from the coastal city of Sittwe told Reuters, claiming to lead a network of 1,000 monks and students wanting an end to falling living standards and galloping inflation.
"People are getting angrier and angrier. Their suffering is worsening day by day and they cannot tolerate it any more," he told Reuters at a secret location in Yangon.
"If there is another uprising, the soldiers will shoot to kill and there will be another bloodbath. But I am prepared to go to prison or be killed."
Others have no more stomach for a fight.
"I hope it doesn't happen again. The country is peaceful now," one Mandalay monk said.
MONASTERIES RE-FILLING
Although many monasteries were closed at the height of the crackdown and thousands of monks disappeared either to prison or back to their home towns and villages, most have been allowed to reopen.
However, three dissident establishments in Yangon remain locked and in Mandalay, Myanmar's religious heart, monks at several large monasteries said numbers were 20-30 percent lower than before the crackdown.
The junta has also called in scores of senior abbots, telling them to keep in check their young charges.
"Our abbot told us not to protest again. He told us that they'll shoot and we'll die. What can we do? We have no arms," a 23-year-old at a large Mandalay monastery said. "But if we get the chance, we will do it again. This government is no good."
In the central town of Pakokku, where heavy-handed treatment of monks by soldiers and pro-junta thugs in early September triggered the nationwide monastic revolt, the regime appears to be taking steps to ensure against a repeat.
Regime agents are undercover in the monasteries and a reviled local gang leader known as "Mr. 2 by 1", after the 2-inch thick wooden baton with which he beat monks and protesters, is behind bars to avoid inciting protests, one resident said.
Source: Reuters
Editing by Michael Battye and Megan Goldin
March 11, 2008, MANDALAY, Myanmar - Beneath the veneer of serenity and religious devotion, Myanmar's maroon-robed Buddhist monks, the engine of the protests six months ago against the ruling junta, are seething with rage.
Some talk impetuously of revolution. Others even say they are ready to lay down their lives in a repeat showdown between the monkhood, the former Burma's highest moral authority, and the raw might of the military.
But pro-democracy campaigners and even some monks admit the regime's bloody crackdown on the September marches has broken the clandestine network that, albeit briefly, turned the country's 500,000 Buddhist monks into a potent political force.
Even the approach of the numerologically auspicious August 8, 2008 -- the 20th anniversary of the brutally suppressed 8-8-88 anti-junta uprising -- looks unlikely to precipitate another challenge to 46 years of unbroken army rule.
"There are no plans being made because most of the active monks are in prison or have fled," a leading member of the pro-democracy underground told Reuters at a safe house in Yangon, the former capital.
Among the 80 people the junta says it is still holding after the protests are 21 monks, including 27-year-old U Gambira, a leader of the All-Burmese Monks Alliance which played a prominent role in the marches.
Human rights group Amnesty International said in January that 700 people arrested in the crackdown remained behind bars.
TINDER-BOXES
Despite the arrests, the southeast Asian nation's monasteries, some of which are home to as many as 3,000 mainly young men at any one time, remain political tinder-boxes that could re-ignite at the slightest provocation.
At least 31 people were killed when the junta sent in troops to crush the marches in September, but this United Nations death toll does not include any monks, despite reports of several beaten to death when soldiers stormed monasteries in Yangon and elsewhere.
Dissident Web sites also posted pictures of mutilated corpses of what appeared to be monks, spurring the deepest possible outrage amongst clergy and lay people alike.
No monks interviewed by Reuters in the religious centres of Yangon, Mandalay and nearby Sagaing said they had lifted their ban on accepting alms from members of the military junta or their families.
Known as "patam nikkuijana kamma" or "turning over the alms bowl" in Pali, the ancient language of the Theravada Buddhist priesthood, the 2,500-year-old rite is similar to the Christian notion of excommunication and is taken very seriously.
It can be rescinded at any moment if the perceived wrong-doers apologize and mend their ways -- something the generals have steadfastly refused to do.
"If they do not apologize, we will start our movement," a young monk from the coastal city of Sittwe told Reuters, claiming to lead a network of 1,000 monks and students wanting an end to falling living standards and galloping inflation.
"People are getting angrier and angrier. Their suffering is worsening day by day and they cannot tolerate it any more," he told Reuters at a secret location in Yangon.
"If there is another uprising, the soldiers will shoot to kill and there will be another bloodbath. But I am prepared to go to prison or be killed."
Others have no more stomach for a fight.
"I hope it doesn't happen again. The country is peaceful now," one Mandalay monk said.
MONASTERIES RE-FILLING
Although many monasteries were closed at the height of the crackdown and thousands of monks disappeared either to prison or back to their home towns and villages, most have been allowed to reopen.
However, three dissident establishments in Yangon remain locked and in Mandalay, Myanmar's religious heart, monks at several large monasteries said numbers were 20-30 percent lower than before the crackdown.
The junta has also called in scores of senior abbots, telling them to keep in check their young charges.
"Our abbot told us not to protest again. He told us that they'll shoot and we'll die. What can we do? We have no arms," a 23-year-old at a large Mandalay monastery said. "But if we get the chance, we will do it again. This government is no good."
In the central town of Pakokku, where heavy-handed treatment of monks by soldiers and pro-junta thugs in early September triggered the nationwide monastic revolt, the regime appears to be taking steps to ensure against a repeat.
Regime agents are undercover in the monasteries and a reviled local gang leader known as "Mr. 2 by 1", after the 2-inch thick wooden baton with which he beat monks and protesters, is behind bars to avoid inciting protests, one resident said.
Source: Reuters
Burmese monk's mission to tell world how it is
By Connie LevettMarch 10, 2008 - THE Burmese junta mobilised a powerful new adversary when it brutally suppressed the monks' uprising in September, igniting monks worldwide to campaign to force a change of government.
The monk Pannya Vamsa, co-founder of the International Burmese Monks Organisation, has called on Australia to support sanctions, co-ordinate with other governments for a unified response and use its influence on China, Burma's most important backer and arms supplier, to improve civil rights and allow democratic progress.
Pannya Vamsa, 79, in Australia on a two-week speaking tour, has had a working relationship with the regime in the past. For 50 years he has promoted Buddhism internationally and received honours from the regime in 1994 and 1998. He set up a monks' educational training centre in Rangoon in the 1990s and built 15 temples in the United States, East Asia, Europe and Australasia.
Now he is campaigning to overthrow the military government. In 2002 the Government took over his Rangoon training centre because "they were afraid of it", Pannya Vamsa said. "They [the regime] liked me; I never liked them," he said of his previous co-operation. "When governments ask what to do, I say you have to choose between good and evil.
"The Burmese Government is wrong in every field - religiously, socially and commercially. They cannot handle the [country], there is not enough to eat, and they make divisions."
The International Burmese Monks Association was formed on October 27 last year after the arrest and detention of thousands of monks by the army in the wake of the peaceful uprising.
"In Burma, the present situation, the monks say, 'We cannot do anything. The military government is torturing and killing, and we cannot live peacefully. Help us tell the world leaders, political and religious, what is happening,"' he said.
There are an estimated 400,000 to 500,000 monks and nuns in Burma, the same as the number of soldiers. "We think about 100 monks were killed and thousands of monks and nuns were arrested [last September]," Pannya Vamsa said.
After the uprising the regime closed the monasteries in and around Rangoon, detained senior monks and sent the novices back to their villages. "In Rangoon now about 10 per cent of the monks are left," Pannya Vamsa said.
"In Mandalay [the second largest city] there are about 40 per cent." Monks who tried to return were investigated, their faces checked against the photographs of the marches to see if they were involved in the protests, he said.
Pannya Vamsa dismissed the junta's referendum in May to approve a new constitution as "probably a trick" and predicted there would be another uprising. "They torture so much, people cannot stand it. There is no limitation; they nearly explode. They have tolerated it for so many years. It is not just wishful thinking. Feelings first, actions later."
He said the uprising in September had resulted in one big change: people worldwide were once again aware of and cared about what was happening in Burma.
Source: Sydney Morning Herald
Oppression in homeland leads men on Walk for Freedom
By Tammy Malgesini
The East Oregonian
A world away from the United States, Athien and Zaw, originally from Burma, embarked on a 3,000-mile walk March 1 from Portland, en route to New York and then Washington, D.C.
Athien, who has been in the United States, left Burma in 1988 - first fleeing to Thailand and then the U.S.
After working as a fabricator in Tualatin, Athien met Zaw, who was a janitor at the Oregon State Hospital, left their jobs to march to meet the Secretary General of the United Nations.
"I (am) walking for my country - for the people want democracy and freedom," he said in a cell phone conversation. "We are campaigning to make change."
The men will present a petition to the office of the Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, calling for freedom and human rights in Burma. Supporters can add their name to the petition on the Walk for Freedom Web site.
The two passed through Arlington Saturday afternoon, making their way down Interstate 84 waving an American flag and a flag representing Burma's democracy movement.
"We can't show (the democracy flag) in my country or they will open fire and here it's OK," he explained. "In the United States, it's a democratic, free country."
Athien lost his family in Burma, located in Southeast Asia, in 1988.
"Anyone who wanted democracy and freedom had peace movement," Athien said. "It was (a) peaceful demonstration, but the government opened fire and 3,000 people died."
As far as Athien knows, his sister is the only one who survived, however, he hasn't had any contact with her since 1988.
Zaw, 27, left Burma when he was seven years old. Although he didn't understand the political situation, he now joins others to fight for freedom in his home land.
The men hope to arrive in at the United Nations on Aug. 8, the 20th anniversary of the Aug. 8, 1988 protests in Burma.
Zaw and Athien take turns walking and driving a white Ford Explorer. They will depart from Boardman around 10 a.m. today to continue their journey. For more information about Walk for Freedom, visit http://88portland.wordpress.com
The East Oregonian
A world away from the United States, Athien and Zaw, originally from Burma, embarked on a 3,000-mile walk March 1 from Portland, en route to New York and then Washington, D.C.
Athien, who has been in the United States, left Burma in 1988 - first fleeing to Thailand and then the U.S.
After working as a fabricator in Tualatin, Athien met Zaw, who was a janitor at the Oregon State Hospital, left their jobs to march to meet the Secretary General of the United Nations.
"I (am) walking for my country - for the people want democracy and freedom," he said in a cell phone conversation. "We are campaigning to make change."
The men will present a petition to the office of the Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, calling for freedom and human rights in Burma. Supporters can add their name to the petition on the Walk for Freedom Web site.
The two passed through Arlington Saturday afternoon, making their way down Interstate 84 waving an American flag and a flag representing Burma's democracy movement.
"We can't show (the democracy flag) in my country or they will open fire and here it's OK," he explained. "In the United States, it's a democratic, free country."
Athien lost his family in Burma, located in Southeast Asia, in 1988.
"Anyone who wanted democracy and freedom had peace movement," Athien said. "It was (a) peaceful demonstration, but the government opened fire and 3,000 people died."
As far as Athien knows, his sister is the only one who survived, however, he hasn't had any contact with her since 1988.
Zaw, 27, left Burma when he was seven years old. Although he didn't understand the political situation, he now joins others to fight for freedom in his home land.
The men hope to arrive in at the United Nations on Aug. 8, the 20th anniversary of the Aug. 8, 1988 protests in Burma.
Zaw and Athien take turns walking and driving a white Ford Explorer. They will depart from Boardman around 10 a.m. today to continue their journey. For more information about Walk for Freedom, visit http://88portland.wordpress.com
Source: The East Oregonian
Sunday, 9 March 2008
Money changers hit by drop in value of Thai currency
By Lawi Weng
IMNA
March 8, 2008 - The value of the Thai currency having gone down has affected Burmese currency transfer of people and exchangers on the Thai-Burma border in Three Pagoda Pass , said a currency exchanger in Three Pagoda Pass.
The fluctuation has been caused by the unstable political situation in Thailand and the new government's link with the former Prime Minister who has come back home.
Many Thai businessmen do not want to keep a lot of money in their bank accounts and that is why the Thai currency rate has gone down, said a Thai businessman.
"I lost 700,000 kyat just in two days. So, I did not dare to buy Thai currency any more for exchange, said Than Lwin,” a money exchanger in Three Pagoda Pass.
The downward trend started on Monday and the price was one Thai baht for 36 kyat (in the black market). But yesterday the downward trend continued and it was one baht for 35 kyat.
This is the first time it has happened since 2007 explained Ma Yee, another currency exchanger in Sangkhlaburi. Normally, the ratio has been one baht to 36 kyat for a long time, she said.
The current Thai stock is inflated and it is causing difficulty for Burmese currency exchangers.
But, it has been good for Burmese businessmen, who export Thai goods to Burma. Thousands of Thai goods are exported to Burma every day through Mae Sot and Three Pagoda Pass.
IMNA
March 8, 2008 - The value of the Thai currency having gone down has affected Burmese currency transfer of people and exchangers on the Thai-Burma border in Three Pagoda Pass , said a currency exchanger in Three Pagoda Pass.
The fluctuation has been caused by the unstable political situation in Thailand and the new government's link with the former Prime Minister who has come back home.
Many Thai businessmen do not want to keep a lot of money in their bank accounts and that is why the Thai currency rate has gone down, said a Thai businessman.
"I lost 700,000 kyat just in two days. So, I did not dare to buy Thai currency any more for exchange, said Than Lwin,” a money exchanger in Three Pagoda Pass.
The downward trend started on Monday and the price was one Thai baht for 36 kyat (in the black market). But yesterday the downward trend continued and it was one baht for 35 kyat.
This is the first time it has happened since 2007 explained Ma Yee, another currency exchanger in Sangkhlaburi. Normally, the ratio has been one baht to 36 kyat for a long time, she said.
The current Thai stock is inflated and it is causing difficulty for Burmese currency exchangers.
But, it has been good for Burmese businessmen, who export Thai goods to Burma. Thousands of Thai goods are exported to Burma every day through Mae Sot and Three Pagoda Pass.
Source: IMNA News
Brig-Gen Thein Zaw woos Christians in Northern Burma ahead of referendum
March 8, 2008 - The Burmese military junta has pulled out all stops to woo the Christian community in Kachin State in Northern Burma ahead of the referendum in May this year.
Brig-Gen Thein Zaw, the Minister of Communication, Post and Telegraph is on a trail blazing campaign to garner support for the referendum to approve the draft constitution, local church sources said.
Before noon today, Brig-Gen Thein Zaw visited seven Kachin churches in different areas of north of Myitkyina Township, the capital of Kachin State. There was tight security and he was escorted by soldiers of the Northern Command headquarters in the township, local eyewitnesses and church sources told KNG today.
The minister visited the Shwezet Kachin Baptist Church where over 150 local people gathered. During his 30-minute visit he said "They are a handful of people and they are less than a million who destabilize and aim to destroy our country by saying careless (random) words."
Source: Kachin News
Brig-Gen Thein Zaw, the Minister of Communication, Post and Telegraph is on a trail blazing campaign to garner support for the referendum to approve the draft constitution, local church sources said.
Before noon today, Brig-Gen Thein Zaw visited seven Kachin churches in different areas of north of Myitkyina Township, the capital of Kachin State. There was tight security and he was escorted by soldiers of the Northern Command headquarters in the township, local eyewitnesses and church sources told KNG today.
The minister visited the Shwezet Kachin Baptist Church where over 150 local people gathered. During his 30-minute visit he said "They are a handful of people and they are less than a million who destabilize and aim to destroy our country by saying careless (random) words."
Source: Kachin News
Arakanese Historian Arrested in Sittwe
March 7, 2008 - Sittwe: An Arakanese historian and author was arrested by police earlier this week in Sittwe and released on the condition that he must come to the police station whenever he is wanted for questioning, said one of his students.
U Aung Hla Thein was arrested by police in a raid on his house in Kyaung Det Land ward in Sittwe in the early morning hours of Monday and was brought to the number two police station in Sittwe.
Once at the station, he was interrogated by police for about three hours and then released after agreeing to the authorities conditions.
The student said, "U Aung Hla is now free but the police seized his computer and many papers, including research papers about Arakanese history." There are no details on why the authorities arrested him and seized his computer and documents.
"Many people believe that the arrest of U Aung Hla Thein is related to the forthcoming referendum sponsored by the military government. Because there is a rumor in Sittwe that some intellectuals in Sittwe are preparing to oppose the referendum which is scheduled to be held in May 2008," the student added.
U Aung Hla Thein is just a scholar and is not involved in politics, but it is felt that the authorities suspect that he may agitate some intellectuals to oppose the referendum.
The student said, "Sara U Aung Hla Thein is now at his house, but he has not revealed anything about his arrest. It seems he is prohibited by the police force from saying anything of his arrest to other people."
It has also been learned that many scholars in Sittwe are now anxious about their security after police arrested and interrogated U Aung Hla Thein..
U Aung Hla Thein was arrested by police in a raid on his house in Kyaung Det Land ward in Sittwe in the early morning hours of Monday and was brought to the number two police station in Sittwe.
Once at the station, he was interrogated by police for about three hours and then released after agreeing to the authorities conditions.
The student said, "U Aung Hla is now free but the police seized his computer and many papers, including research papers about Arakanese history." There are no details on why the authorities arrested him and seized his computer and documents.
"Many people believe that the arrest of U Aung Hla Thein is related to the forthcoming referendum sponsored by the military government. Because there is a rumor in Sittwe that some intellectuals in Sittwe are preparing to oppose the referendum which is scheduled to be held in May 2008," the student added.
U Aung Hla Thein is just a scholar and is not involved in politics, but it is felt that the authorities suspect that he may agitate some intellectuals to oppose the referendum.
The student said, "Sara U Aung Hla Thein is now at his house, but he has not revealed anything about his arrest. It seems he is prohibited by the police force from saying anything of his arrest to other people."
It has also been learned that many scholars in Sittwe are now anxious about their security after police arrested and interrogated U Aung Hla Thein..
Source: Narinjara News
We Became Soldiers - [Beyond 1988— Reflections]
By AUNG NAING OO
March 8, 2008
October 11, 1988: The novelty of finding ourselves in a new place with new people had hardly worn off when we began our new military life. It happened the day after our arrival at Thay Baw Boe, before we had even explored the area.
We were student-rebels who had traveled to the border to fight the Burmese military, and it was time to prepare for battle. But first, we had to become soldiers.
Our first day at the training camp began with breakfast, served to hundreds of new arrivals who were crammed into a small makeshift, open-air enclosure with bamboo tables set next to the Karen customs office.
By the time we arrived, there was a long queue. There were complaints, grumbles and impatient grunts; after a long wait, it turned out that the breakfast was badly prepared.
March 8, 2008
October 11, 1988: The novelty of finding ourselves in a new place with new people had hardly worn off when we began our new military life. It happened the day after our arrival at Thay Baw Boe, before we had even explored the area.
We were student-rebels who had traveled to the border to fight the Burmese military, and it was time to prepare for battle. But first, we had to become soldiers.
Our first day at the training camp began with breakfast, served to hundreds of new arrivals who were crammed into a small makeshift, open-air enclosure with bamboo tables set next to the Karen customs office.
By the time we arrived, there was a long queue. There were complaints, grumbles and impatient grunts; after a long wait, it turned out that the breakfast was badly prepared.
Full Article at: www.irrawaddy.org
Don’t Lose Control in the Golden Triangle
By Yeni
The Irrawaddy News
A surprise attack on a Chinese maritime police boat on the Mekong River late last month has put the transnational narcotics trade in the Golden Triangle back in the spotlight. It has also highlighted the failure of international efforts to control lawlessness in the region, where renegade militias and other armed groups based in a remote corner of Burma are demonstrating that they remain a law unto themselves.
Thai media reported that the Chinese boat was patrolling the river where it flows between Burma and Laos, under a regional cooperation scheme aimed at fighting drug trafficking. Later, a second boat carrying half a dozen people opened fire as it approached the Chinese vessel. The gang boarded the Chinese craft, shooting and stabbing some of the six police on board before jumping back onto their own vessel to escape.
The clash lasted about five minutes. Three Chinese police were seriously injured in the attack, and have been hospitalized in the northern Thai city of Chiang Rai. According to Pakorn Pothichai, commander of the Thai Navy mission for the Mekong, the gang was believed to be working to protect a shipment of drugs. Sources in the area where the incident occurred suggested that a drug gang based in Burma and led by Naw Kham, who once served under the late drug lord Khun Sa as a member of the disbanded Mong Tai Army, was behind the attack.
Naw Kham’s gang is just one of five armed groups active in the area. The Burmese Army, the Shan State Army-South, the United Wa State Army and a 2-3,000-strong militia known as the National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA), run by Lin Mingxian (more widely known as Sai Leun), also operate in a volatile region of Burma bordering Thailand, Laos and China.
The notorious Golden Triangle is no longer just a land of brightly colored poppy fields, opium-smoking hill tribes and heroin labs hidden in the jungle. A global US State Department report released last week said that poppy cultivation had indeed decreased in the area in 2006-7, but surveys by the United States and the United Nations found indications that drug gangs had replaced opium cultivation with the manufacture and trafficking of synthetic drugs, such as amphetamine-type stimulants, crystal methamphetamine and Ketamine.
Observers have also noted that Burma’s sector of the Golden Triangle is producing not only narcotics, but is also heavily involved in the trade of other contraband—everything from endangered wildlife to cheap counterfeit pharmaceuticals and pirated CDs. It also plays host to a number of casinos catering to gamblers from neighboring countries.
At the governmental level, Burma is actively engaged with its neighbors China, India, and Thailand in efforts to control drug trafficking. Thailand has contributed over US $1.6 million to support an opium crop substitution and infrastructure project in southeastern Shan State. In 2007, Thailand assigned an officer from the Office of Narcotics Control Board to its mission in Rangoon. Burma-China cross border law enforcement cooperation has increased significantly, resulting in several successful operations and the handover of several Chinese fugitives who had fled to Burma.
The drugs, however, continue to flow across Burma’s borders in all directions. A sharp increase in the production and export of synthetic drugs has prompted some to start referring to the Golden Triangle as the “Ice Triangle.” According to a US report, drug gangs based in the Burma-China and Burma-Thailand border areas, many of whose members are ethnic Chinese, produce several hundred million methamphetamine tablets annually for markets in Thailand, China, and India, as well as for onward distribution beyond the region.
The recent attack on a Chinese police boat should alert all governments in the region to the need to boost their efforts against drug gangs. The governments need to show their serious commitment to preventing money laundering by major narco-trafficking groups in the region, as a means of controlling their networks and business.
At the same time, however, there need to be guarantees that the “war on drugs” will not turn into a killing spree, as it did in 2003, when former Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra initiated a crackdown that left more than 2,500 people dead in a matter of weeks.
But any hopes that the authorities will exercise greater restraint in their handling of the problem in the future seem likely to meet with disappointment, after Thailand’s Interior Minister Chalerm Yubamrung expressed his indifference to the human cost of hard-line drug policies. “When we implement a policy that may bring 3,000 to 4,000 bodies, we will do it,” he said.
If Thailand and other countries in the region continue take this approach to controlling the drug trade, there will be no lasting improvement in the situation.
The cost in baht and lost lives will be enormous, while drug gangs lurking on the other side of the Burmese border will remain, waiting for their chance to resume their nefarious business with complete impunity.
The Irrawaddy News
A surprise attack on a Chinese maritime police boat on the Mekong River late last month has put the transnational narcotics trade in the Golden Triangle back in the spotlight. It has also highlighted the failure of international efforts to control lawlessness in the region, where renegade militias and other armed groups based in a remote corner of Burma are demonstrating that they remain a law unto themselves.
Thai media reported that the Chinese boat was patrolling the river where it flows between Burma and Laos, under a regional cooperation scheme aimed at fighting drug trafficking. Later, a second boat carrying half a dozen people opened fire as it approached the Chinese vessel. The gang boarded the Chinese craft, shooting and stabbing some of the six police on board before jumping back onto their own vessel to escape.
The clash lasted about five minutes. Three Chinese police were seriously injured in the attack, and have been hospitalized in the northern Thai city of Chiang Rai. According to Pakorn Pothichai, commander of the Thai Navy mission for the Mekong, the gang was believed to be working to protect a shipment of drugs. Sources in the area where the incident occurred suggested that a drug gang based in Burma and led by Naw Kham, who once served under the late drug lord Khun Sa as a member of the disbanded Mong Tai Army, was behind the attack.
Naw Kham’s gang is just one of five armed groups active in the area. The Burmese Army, the Shan State Army-South, the United Wa State Army and a 2-3,000-strong militia known as the National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA), run by Lin Mingxian (more widely known as Sai Leun), also operate in a volatile region of Burma bordering Thailand, Laos and China.
The notorious Golden Triangle is no longer just a land of brightly colored poppy fields, opium-smoking hill tribes and heroin labs hidden in the jungle. A global US State Department report released last week said that poppy cultivation had indeed decreased in the area in 2006-7, but surveys by the United States and the United Nations found indications that drug gangs had replaced opium cultivation with the manufacture and trafficking of synthetic drugs, such as amphetamine-type stimulants, crystal methamphetamine and Ketamine.
Observers have also noted that Burma’s sector of the Golden Triangle is producing not only narcotics, but is also heavily involved in the trade of other contraband—everything from endangered wildlife to cheap counterfeit pharmaceuticals and pirated CDs. It also plays host to a number of casinos catering to gamblers from neighboring countries.
At the governmental level, Burma is actively engaged with its neighbors China, India, and Thailand in efforts to control drug trafficking. Thailand has contributed over US $1.6 million to support an opium crop substitution and infrastructure project in southeastern Shan State. In 2007, Thailand assigned an officer from the Office of Narcotics Control Board to its mission in Rangoon. Burma-China cross border law enforcement cooperation has increased significantly, resulting in several successful operations and the handover of several Chinese fugitives who had fled to Burma.
The drugs, however, continue to flow across Burma’s borders in all directions. A sharp increase in the production and export of synthetic drugs has prompted some to start referring to the Golden Triangle as the “Ice Triangle.” According to a US report, drug gangs based in the Burma-China and Burma-Thailand border areas, many of whose members are ethnic Chinese, produce several hundred million methamphetamine tablets annually for markets in Thailand, China, and India, as well as for onward distribution beyond the region.
The recent attack on a Chinese police boat should alert all governments in the region to the need to boost their efforts against drug gangs. The governments need to show their serious commitment to preventing money laundering by major narco-trafficking groups in the region, as a means of controlling their networks and business.
At the same time, however, there need to be guarantees that the “war on drugs” will not turn into a killing spree, as it did in 2003, when former Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra initiated a crackdown that left more than 2,500 people dead in a matter of weeks.
But any hopes that the authorities will exercise greater restraint in their handling of the problem in the future seem likely to meet with disappointment, after Thailand’s Interior Minister Chalerm Yubamrung expressed his indifference to the human cost of hard-line drug policies. “When we implement a policy that may bring 3,000 to 4,000 bodies, we will do it,” he said.
If Thailand and other countries in the region continue take this approach to controlling the drug trade, there will be no lasting improvement in the situation.
The cost in baht and lost lives will be enormous, while drug gangs lurking on the other side of the Burmese border will remain, waiting for their chance to resume their nefarious business with complete impunity.
UN Myanmar Envoy Meets Suu Kyi
March 8, 2008, YANGON, Myanmar — The U.N. special envoy to promote political reconciliation in Myanmar met Aung San Suu Kyi and other opposition party members Saturday, a day after being rebuffed by the country's military rulers.
Suu Kyi, who has been detained without trial for 12 of the past 18 years, was seen being driven from the residence where she is held under house arrest to the state guest house where Ibrahim Gambari was staying. Gambari, representing U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, was scheduled to hold talks with Suu Kyi, but details of their meeting were likely to be closely held.
The U.N. envoy earlier held talks with representatives of ethnic groups, non-governmental organizations and several political parties including executives of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party.
At their one-hour morning meeting with Gambari, five NLD leaders told him of their desire for an accelerated dialogue with the junta and the release of political prisoners, according to one of the party members present.
The United Nations holds a similar position, but the junta shows no sign of implementing either action. Myanmar has been in a political deadlock since the junta, which seized power in 1998, refused to honor the results of a 1990 general election won by Suu Kyi's party.
Gambari told the NLD executives that he would try his utmost to press their case, but also suggested that they should grab any opportunities offered by the junta, said the party official, who asked not to be identified because he is not authorized to speak to the press.
The junta's top spokesman told Gambari at a Friday meeting that that the government had done enough to hold a dialogue with Suu Kyi, by appointing a ministerial level liaison officer for her and announcing that junta chairman Senior Gen. Than Shwe would be willing to meet her if she gave up her "confrontational attitude" and stopped calling for sanctions against the junta.
Information Minister Brig. Gen. Kyaw Hsan told Gambari that Myanmar has no political prisoners and that Suu Kyi was detained because she tried to disrupt stability of the country, state-controlled media reported.
Kyaw Hsan also expressed unhappiness with Gambari's trips to other countries in the region to seek their support for political reform in Myanmar.
Gambari arrived Thursday on his third trip to Myanmar since the junta's deadly crackdown on nonviolent pro-democracy protesters in September sparked a global outcry. The visit came amid growing concerns that the government is ignoring calls for political reform and is tightening its grip on power.
The junta said last month that it would hold a constitutional referendum in May and general elections in 2010 _ the first specific dates for steps in a previously announced "roadmap to democracy."
Dissidents, diplomats and human rights groups have dismissed the roadmap as a sham designed to allow the perpetuation of military rule.
"It is impossible to review or rewrite the constitution which was drawn with the participation of delegates from all walks of life. The draft constitution will be adopted in accordance with the decision by the people in the May constitutional referendum," Kyaw Hsan was quoted telling Gambari on Friday.
Source: Fox News
Suu Kyi, who has been detained without trial for 12 of the past 18 years, was seen being driven from the residence where she is held under house arrest to the state guest house where Ibrahim Gambari was staying. Gambari, representing U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, was scheduled to hold talks with Suu Kyi, but details of their meeting were likely to be closely held.
The U.N. envoy earlier held talks with representatives of ethnic groups, non-governmental organizations and several political parties including executives of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party.
At their one-hour morning meeting with Gambari, five NLD leaders told him of their desire for an accelerated dialogue with the junta and the release of political prisoners, according to one of the party members present.
The United Nations holds a similar position, but the junta shows no sign of implementing either action. Myanmar has been in a political deadlock since the junta, which seized power in 1998, refused to honor the results of a 1990 general election won by Suu Kyi's party.
Gambari told the NLD executives that he would try his utmost to press their case, but also suggested that they should grab any opportunities offered by the junta, said the party official, who asked not to be identified because he is not authorized to speak to the press.
The junta's top spokesman told Gambari at a Friday meeting that that the government had done enough to hold a dialogue with Suu Kyi, by appointing a ministerial level liaison officer for her and announcing that junta chairman Senior Gen. Than Shwe would be willing to meet her if she gave up her "confrontational attitude" and stopped calling for sanctions against the junta.
Information Minister Brig. Gen. Kyaw Hsan told Gambari that Myanmar has no political prisoners and that Suu Kyi was detained because she tried to disrupt stability of the country, state-controlled media reported.
Kyaw Hsan also expressed unhappiness with Gambari's trips to other countries in the region to seek their support for political reform in Myanmar.
Gambari arrived Thursday on his third trip to Myanmar since the junta's deadly crackdown on nonviolent pro-democracy protesters in September sparked a global outcry. The visit came amid growing concerns that the government is ignoring calls for political reform and is tightening its grip on power.
The junta said last month that it would hold a constitutional referendum in May and general elections in 2010 _ the first specific dates for steps in a previously announced "roadmap to democracy."
Dissidents, diplomats and human rights groups have dismissed the roadmap as a sham designed to allow the perpetuation of military rule.
"It is impossible to review or rewrite the constitution which was drawn with the participation of delegates from all walks of life. The draft constitution will be adopted in accordance with the decision by the people in the May constitutional referendum," Kyaw Hsan was quoted telling Gambari on Friday.
Source: Fox News
Philippines urges Myanmar to reconsider rejection of poll observers
March 9, 2008, Manila -- Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on Sunday urged Myanmar's junta to reconsider its rejection of a UN proposal to allow observers at its constitutional referendum planned for May.
In a statement, Arroyo said it was 'a sad day for democracy' and the South-east Asian region that Myanmar rejected the proposal made by UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari in talks with election officials on Friday.
'A central pillar of democracy is a free and fair election,' she said. 'Outside observers are not a threat to any nation's sovereignty. Rather, the participation of outside election observers is a sign of strength.
'It is not too late for the government of Myanmar to accept the proposal by the UN,' she added. 'It is a small but modest step towards democratization that is long over due in Myanmar.'
Myanmar, formerly called Burma, will hold a referendum on an unspecified date in May to endorse a controversial draft constitution compiled over the past 14 years by a military-appointed forum.
The proposed constitution enshrines the military's role as a powerful political force in any future elected government.
The date of the referendum will be announced 21 days prior to the event. It will be followed by a general election in 2010 as part of the ruling junta's 'seven step road map' to democracy.
Myanmar and the Philippines are both members of the Association of South-East Asian Nations, which has been criticized in the past for failing to put more pressure on the military-ruled country to hasten democratic reforms.
In a statement, Arroyo said it was 'a sad day for democracy' and the South-east Asian region that Myanmar rejected the proposal made by UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari in talks with election officials on Friday.
'A central pillar of democracy is a free and fair election,' she said. 'Outside observers are not a threat to any nation's sovereignty. Rather, the participation of outside election observers is a sign of strength.
'It is not too late for the government of Myanmar to accept the proposal by the UN,' she added. 'It is a small but modest step towards democratization that is long over due in Myanmar.'
Myanmar, formerly called Burma, will hold a referendum on an unspecified date in May to endorse a controversial draft constitution compiled over the past 14 years by a military-appointed forum.
The proposed constitution enshrines the military's role as a powerful political force in any future elected government.
The date of the referendum will be announced 21 days prior to the event. It will be followed by a general election in 2010 as part of the ruling junta's 'seven step road map' to democracy.
Myanmar and the Philippines are both members of the Association of South-East Asian Nations, which has been criticized in the past for failing to put more pressure on the military-ruled country to hasten democratic reforms.
Source: Monsters & Critics
Myanmar's junta has rejected a United Nations suggestion that international observers
Yangon - Myanmar's junta has rejected a United Nations suggestion that international observers be allowed to observe the upcoming referendum on the country's new constitution scheduled in May this year, state media reports said Sunday.
UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari proposed that international observers be allowed to assure the referendum is free and fair in tlaks held Friday with Thaung Nyunt, who heads the Commission for Holding Referendum, reported The New Light of Myanmar, a government mouthpiece.
'Thaung Nyunt replied that holding the referendum for the constitution is within the State sovereignty,' said the newspaper in a detailed reprint of the talks between Thaung Nyunt and Gambari.
'Besides, there were no instances of foreign observers monitoring the events like a referendum. In the referendums for the 1947 and 1974 constitutions also, there were no foreign observers,' the head of the referendum commission said.
Gambari reportedly countered that the observers did not need to be from abroad, a suggestion Thaung Nyunt promised he would 'bear it in mind.'
Myanmar will hold a referendum on an unspecified date in May to endorse a controversial draft constitution compiled over the past 14 years by a military-appointed forum that will enshrine the military's role as a powerful political force in any future elected government.
The date of the referendum will be announced 21 days prior to the event. It will be followed by a general election in 2010 as part of the ruling junta's 'seven step road map' to democracy.
Myanmar has been under military rule since 1962, when former strongman Ne Win staged a coup that overthrew the elected government of U Nu, Myanmar's first and last elected prime minister since the country gained independence from Great Britain in 1948.
A referendum held in 1974 to endorse Myanmar's previous constitution was a rigged affair, with 'yes' and 'no' boxes clearly marked to allow authorities to know how people had voted.
There are worries that the May referendum will be similarly manipulated, although Thaung Nyunt assured Gamabri, who arrived in Yangon on Thursday, that it would be carried out in accordance with international standards.
The refusal to allow international observers was deemed a second blow to Gambari's mission. Prior to his talks with the referendum holding committee, Myanmar Information Minister Kyaw Hsan informed Gambari that no amendments will be allowed to the draft constitution, which in its current form bars opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from contesting the polls.
The UN has urged the junta to allow Suu Kyi, a Nobel peace laureate whose National League for Democracy (NLD) party won the last election of 1990, be allowed to contest the 2010 polls.
But the draft constitution stipulates that no Myanmar national married to a foreigner is allowed to run for public office. Suu Kyi was married to the late Michael Aris, a British professor at Oxford university.
Gambari met with Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest since May, 2003, Saturday afternoon. The content of their discussion was not immediately known.
UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari proposed that international observers be allowed to assure the referendum is free and fair in tlaks held Friday with Thaung Nyunt, who heads the Commission for Holding Referendum, reported The New Light of Myanmar, a government mouthpiece.
'Thaung Nyunt replied that holding the referendum for the constitution is within the State sovereignty,' said the newspaper in a detailed reprint of the talks between Thaung Nyunt and Gambari.
'Besides, there were no instances of foreign observers monitoring the events like a referendum. In the referendums for the 1947 and 1974 constitutions also, there were no foreign observers,' the head of the referendum commission said.
Gambari reportedly countered that the observers did not need to be from abroad, a suggestion Thaung Nyunt promised he would 'bear it in mind.'
Myanmar will hold a referendum on an unspecified date in May to endorse a controversial draft constitution compiled over the past 14 years by a military-appointed forum that will enshrine the military's role as a powerful political force in any future elected government.
The date of the referendum will be announced 21 days prior to the event. It will be followed by a general election in 2010 as part of the ruling junta's 'seven step road map' to democracy.
Myanmar has been under military rule since 1962, when former strongman Ne Win staged a coup that overthrew the elected government of U Nu, Myanmar's first and last elected prime minister since the country gained independence from Great Britain in 1948.
A referendum held in 1974 to endorse Myanmar's previous constitution was a rigged affair, with 'yes' and 'no' boxes clearly marked to allow authorities to know how people had voted.
There are worries that the May referendum will be similarly manipulated, although Thaung Nyunt assured Gamabri, who arrived in Yangon on Thursday, that it would be carried out in accordance with international standards.
The refusal to allow international observers was deemed a second blow to Gambari's mission. Prior to his talks with the referendum holding committee, Myanmar Information Minister Kyaw Hsan informed Gambari that no amendments will be allowed to the draft constitution, which in its current form bars opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from contesting the polls.
The UN has urged the junta to allow Suu Kyi, a Nobel peace laureate whose National League for Democracy (NLD) party won the last election of 1990, be allowed to contest the 2010 polls.
But the draft constitution stipulates that no Myanmar national married to a foreigner is allowed to run for public office. Suu Kyi was married to the late Michael Aris, a British professor at Oxford university.
Gambari met with Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest since May, 2003, Saturday afternoon. The content of their discussion was not immediately known.
Source: Monsters & Critics
Shady Politics
By Nirmal Ghosh,
Thailand Correspondent
Latest US sanctions put spotlight on cosy ties between Myanmar junta and business tycoons of dubious reputation
March 9, 2008, BANGKOK - ONE muggy July afternoon in 1999, a convoy led by an off-road SUV with flashing red light and siren was seen making its way down the winding mountain road from Lashio, capital of the Shan state, to the central Myanmar plains bound for Mandalay.
The convoy carried heavily armed Tatmadaw (Myanmar army) soldiers, apparently for the benefit of the man in the second vehicle, a Toyota Land Cruiser.
The man was Mr Lo Hsing Han
That Mr Lo, at the time said by the United States authorities to be one of the kingpins of the heroin trade out of Myanmar's notorious Golden Triangle, was being provided minister-level security gives a clue to an intriguing story of living on the edge, networking in the highest places, the making of enormous wealth - and ultimately, the art of survival.
It also says much about Myanmar's Machiavellian politics and the intricate games played by the junta in power at Yangon and various armed ethnic minority groups in far-flung border provinces.
Mr Lo's name surfaced again late last month when the US Treasury Department placed financial sanctions on him, his son Steven Law, whose Burmese name is Tun Myint Naing, his Singaporean daughter-in-law Cecilia Ng, and their network of 10 companies in Singapore and four in Myanmar.
On Feb 26, US President George W. Bush said in a statement: 'As one element of our policy to promote a genuine democratic transition, the US maintains targeted sanctions that focus on the assets of regime members and their cronies who grow rich while Burma's people suffer under their misrule.
'The Department of the Treasury has applied financial sanctions against Steven Law, a regime crony also suspected of drug-trafficking activities, and his financial network.'
Mr Stuart Levey, under-secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in a statement: 'Unless the ruling junta in Burma halts the violent oppression of its people, we will continue to target those like Steven Law who sustain it and who profit corruptly because of that support.'
The Treasury Department in its statement said that 'in addition to their support for the Burmese regime, Steven Law and Lo Hsing Han have a history of involvement in illicit activities. Lo, known as the 'Godfather of Heroin', has been one of the world's key heroin traffickers dating back to the early 1970s. Law joined his father's drug empire in the 1990s and has since become one of the wealthiest individuals in Burma'.
The new sanctions were in addition to those already announced against 33 individuals and 11 entities, in the wake of the September 2007 crackdown on the 'saffron uprising' against the junta led by unarmed Buddhist monks.
The sanctions are one of the US' principal weapons deployed to undermine Myanmar's ruling generals.
Monopoly of the rich
WHILE many analysts agree that there is an obscene disparity between the country's few enormously wealthy tycoons and the rest of the population that barely manages on an average per capita income of less than US$1 (S$1.40) a day, there is also a counter-argument that the sanctions, while squeezing their targets, do little to shake the generals' hold.
Mr Law's companies, Asia World Co Ltd, Asia World Port Management, Asia World Industries Ltd and Asia World Light Ltd, as well as Golden Aaron Pte Ltd and another nine companies in Singapore reportedly managed by his wife Cecilia were named in the sanctions.
Mr Law is among a small group of Myanmar's richest businessmen, including Mr Tay Za who was covered by previous sanctions, who in the words of Mr Aung Din, director of the US Campaign for Burma, 'monopolise the country's economy by using their connections with the ruling generals'.
It has been reported that as many as eight of the junta's ministers were guests at Mr Law's wedding. Mr Law, however, keeps a relatively low profile and travels a lot between Singapore and Myanmar.
In the case of Mr Law's father, his alleged heroin empire appears to have morphed into a legitimate business empire through a series of twists and turns, including a long spell in a Rangoon jail.
Mr Lo is an ethnic Chinese from Kokang, a former Chinese state which eventually came under the British when they colonised Burma. It went on to become part of the Union of Burma, and a part of the Shan state at the country's independence in 1948.
Chiang Mai-based writer Bertil Lintner has chronicled the sagas of the heroin warlords and ethnic armies in his book, Burma In Revolt.
In an e-mail to The Sunday Times, Mr Lintner wrote: 'Mr Lo commanded the Kokang Ke Kwe Ye (KKY), a government-sponsored militia in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
'In exchange for fighting the Communist Party of Burma (CPB), he was, unofficially, permitted to trade in opium. When the KKY scheme was abandoned in 1972, he went underground and teamed up with the Shan State Army, but with conditions. Eventually the collaboration went sour.'
Mr Lo was arrested in a remote corner of Thailand's Mae Hong Son province in 1973 and extradited to Burma where he was sentenced to death for 'rebellion against the state' - not for opium trading, because he had been unofficially permitted to do that.
He was pardoned during a general amnesty in 1980 and allowed to set up a new 'home guard' force under a scheme called Pyi Thu Sit (people's militia).
He returned to Lashio and benefited enormously from the ceasefire agreement in 1989 between the former CPB forces in Kokang and the Burmese government, which he helped negotiate.
'He made a fortune from a number of business undertakings, including opium and heroin,' Mr Lintner said.
Low profile
NOT much else is known about Mr Lo. What is certain is that he is now in his 70s and lives a relatively low-profile life in Yangon, playing a lot of golf and travelling little.
His Asia World group made its fortune building roads in Myanmar, and today spans trading, manufacturing, real estate, construction, transportation, and imports and distribution.
It is part-owner of the landmark Trader's Hotel, a favourite with Singaporean tourists and a short walk from the Sule Pagoda where many of the biggest anti-junta demonstrations were held last September before they were broken up by soldiers and police in a bloody crackdown.
Asia World was also one of the contractors for the port of Yangon, and for the multimillion-dollar new capital Naypyidaw.
While Mr Lo has never been formally 'wanted' by the US government, he and others in similar positions have been under investigation many times.
In July 1997, then-US secretary of state Madeleine Albright said: 'Drug traffickers who once spent their days leading mule trains down jungle tracks are now leading lights in Burma's new market economy.
'We are increasingly concerned that Burma's drug traffickers, with official encouragement, are laundering their profits through Burmese banks and companies - some of which are joint ventures with foreign businesses.'
That perception remains the basis of the newest sanctions, which freeze bank accounts of the targeted individuals in the US, prohibit US citizens or entities from doing business with them - and make it impossible for them to obtain visas to the US.
nirmal@sph.com.sg
______________
Blacklisted businessman and Singaporean wife shunned publicity
Additional reporting by Diana Othman and Teo Cheng Wee
BOTH Myanmarese businessman Steven Law and his Singaporean wife Cecilia Ng Sor Hong should have made the Forbes list of who's who in the business world.
Instead, they keep a low profile, and perhaps for good reason.
Last month, the United States Treasury Department, in its bid to increase pressure on Myanmar over human rights abuses, slapped sanctions on a major conglomerate, Asia World, and 10 Singapore-based companies owned by Mr Law and his wife.
They include Golden Aaron, GA Ardmore, GA Capital, GA Foodstuffs, GA Land, GA Resort, GA Sentosa, GA Treasure, GA Whitehouse and SH Ng Trading.
Golden Aaron, which was started in 1995, clinched a deal in 2004 to explore the coast off Myanmar with the country's state-owned oil company and China's largest offshore oil and gas outfit.
Under the agreement, the three companies were to carry out oil and gas exploration in a 10,000 sq km area in Rakhine state in the south-west and a 15,534 sq km area in the gulf of Mottama off Tanintharyi in the far south.
According to the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority, the company has a paid-up capital of S$5 million.
US President George W. Bush said last month that the targeted sanctions 'focus on the assets of regime members and their cronies who grow rich while Burma's people suffer under their misrule'. Burma is the former name for Myanmar.
Mr Adam Szubin, director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), explained to The Sunday Times that if it did not sanction those companies, 'then Steven Law could sidestep the law by placing his assets into firms owned by his wife'. OFAC is an agency of the United States Treasury Department.
Mr Law, who also goes by his Burmese name Tun Myint Naing, is the son of Mr Lo Hsing Han - dubbed the 'Godfather of Heroin' by OFAC - and one of the wealthiest individuals in Myanmar. No photographs of his wife are available, and a check with high-society magazines here, The Peak and Prestige, drew a blank.
A freelance photographer, who wanted to be known only as Wong, told The Sunday Times that many 'rich and famous folks guard their privacy jealously'.
'I seem to remember the Laws being one of such who officially requested not to have their pictures taken or published,' he said.
Even friends and acquaintances know very little about the couple. They spoke to The Sunday Times only on the understanding that they are not identified, for fear that their businesses are affected or 'sanctioned'.
One acquaintance said Ms Ng, who was born in 1958, studied at Dunman Secondary School and Hwa Chong Junior College.
A check on the Internet found that she is the third daughter of Mr Ng Ah Khoon and Madam Hong Or Tew Chua. Attempts to contact Ms Ng or her parents at their home in Jansen Road have failed. There was no one at home each time The Sunday Times paid a visit.
Ms Ng married her college sweetheart, now a second-hand car dealer, and had three children by him. She divorced him and married Mr Law in 1995.
A businesswoman who used to play mahjong with her more than 20 years ago said she was 'friendly but kept a distance when it comes to her business of private affairs'.
'A group of us used to hang out socially but I haven't seen her since 1988. People change. I heard she had moved out of the country with her new husband,' she said.
Golden Aaron's office at Shenton House was shut when The Sunday Times visited it late last month. But its doors were open on another visit last Friday. The company sign on the glass door - listing Golden Aaron Pte Ltd, Kokang Singapore Pte Ltd and S H Ng Trading - had been taken down.
An employee said Ms Ng was out of the country. She would not say where she was or how long she had been out of Singapore.
The Sunday Times also visited Ms Ng's condominium home off Alexandra Road last Friday. No one was at home except for a cleaner, who said she cleaned the unit once a week.
She said Ms Ng was in Myanmar and that she spent most of her time there on business matters, returning to Singapore every one or two months.
The last time the cleaner saw her was during the Chinese New Year.
Thailand Correspondent
Latest US sanctions put spotlight on cosy ties between Myanmar junta and business tycoons of dubious reputation
March 9, 2008, BANGKOK - ONE muggy July afternoon in 1999, a convoy led by an off-road SUV with flashing red light and siren was seen making its way down the winding mountain road from Lashio, capital of the Shan state, to the central Myanmar plains bound for Mandalay.
The convoy carried heavily armed Tatmadaw (Myanmar army) soldiers, apparently for the benefit of the man in the second vehicle, a Toyota Land Cruiser.
The man was Mr Lo Hsing Han
That Mr Lo, at the time said by the United States authorities to be one of the kingpins of the heroin trade out of Myanmar's notorious Golden Triangle, was being provided minister-level security gives a clue to an intriguing story of living on the edge, networking in the highest places, the making of enormous wealth - and ultimately, the art of survival.
It also says much about Myanmar's Machiavellian politics and the intricate games played by the junta in power at Yangon and various armed ethnic minority groups in far-flung border provinces.
Mr Lo's name surfaced again late last month when the US Treasury Department placed financial sanctions on him, his son Steven Law, whose Burmese name is Tun Myint Naing, his Singaporean daughter-in-law Cecilia Ng, and their network of 10 companies in Singapore and four in Myanmar.
On Feb 26, US President George W. Bush said in a statement: 'As one element of our policy to promote a genuine democratic transition, the US maintains targeted sanctions that focus on the assets of regime members and their cronies who grow rich while Burma's people suffer under their misrule.
'The Department of the Treasury has applied financial sanctions against Steven Law, a regime crony also suspected of drug-trafficking activities, and his financial network.'
Mr Stuart Levey, under-secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in a statement: 'Unless the ruling junta in Burma halts the violent oppression of its people, we will continue to target those like Steven Law who sustain it and who profit corruptly because of that support.'
The Treasury Department in its statement said that 'in addition to their support for the Burmese regime, Steven Law and Lo Hsing Han have a history of involvement in illicit activities. Lo, known as the 'Godfather of Heroin', has been one of the world's key heroin traffickers dating back to the early 1970s. Law joined his father's drug empire in the 1990s and has since become one of the wealthiest individuals in Burma'.
The new sanctions were in addition to those already announced against 33 individuals and 11 entities, in the wake of the September 2007 crackdown on the 'saffron uprising' against the junta led by unarmed Buddhist monks.
The sanctions are one of the US' principal weapons deployed to undermine Myanmar's ruling generals.
Monopoly of the rich
WHILE many analysts agree that there is an obscene disparity between the country's few enormously wealthy tycoons and the rest of the population that barely manages on an average per capita income of less than US$1 (S$1.40) a day, there is also a counter-argument that the sanctions, while squeezing their targets, do little to shake the generals' hold.
Mr Law's companies, Asia World Co Ltd, Asia World Port Management, Asia World Industries Ltd and Asia World Light Ltd, as well as Golden Aaron Pte Ltd and another nine companies in Singapore reportedly managed by his wife Cecilia were named in the sanctions.
Mr Law is among a small group of Myanmar's richest businessmen, including Mr Tay Za who was covered by previous sanctions, who in the words of Mr Aung Din, director of the US Campaign for Burma, 'monopolise the country's economy by using their connections with the ruling generals'.
It has been reported that as many as eight of the junta's ministers were guests at Mr Law's wedding. Mr Law, however, keeps a relatively low profile and travels a lot between Singapore and Myanmar.
In the case of Mr Law's father, his alleged heroin empire appears to have morphed into a legitimate business empire through a series of twists and turns, including a long spell in a Rangoon jail.
Mr Lo is an ethnic Chinese from Kokang, a former Chinese state which eventually came under the British when they colonised Burma. It went on to become part of the Union of Burma, and a part of the Shan state at the country's independence in 1948.
Chiang Mai-based writer Bertil Lintner has chronicled the sagas of the heroin warlords and ethnic armies in his book, Burma In Revolt.
In an e-mail to The Sunday Times, Mr Lintner wrote: 'Mr Lo commanded the Kokang Ke Kwe Ye (KKY), a government-sponsored militia in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
'In exchange for fighting the Communist Party of Burma (CPB), he was, unofficially, permitted to trade in opium. When the KKY scheme was abandoned in 1972, he went underground and teamed up with the Shan State Army, but with conditions. Eventually the collaboration went sour.'
Mr Lo was arrested in a remote corner of Thailand's Mae Hong Son province in 1973 and extradited to Burma where he was sentenced to death for 'rebellion against the state' - not for opium trading, because he had been unofficially permitted to do that.
He was pardoned during a general amnesty in 1980 and allowed to set up a new 'home guard' force under a scheme called Pyi Thu Sit (people's militia).
He returned to Lashio and benefited enormously from the ceasefire agreement in 1989 between the former CPB forces in Kokang and the Burmese government, which he helped negotiate.
'He made a fortune from a number of business undertakings, including opium and heroin,' Mr Lintner said.
Low profile
NOT much else is known about Mr Lo. What is certain is that he is now in his 70s and lives a relatively low-profile life in Yangon, playing a lot of golf and travelling little.
His Asia World group made its fortune building roads in Myanmar, and today spans trading, manufacturing, real estate, construction, transportation, and imports and distribution.
It is part-owner of the landmark Trader's Hotel, a favourite with Singaporean tourists and a short walk from the Sule Pagoda where many of the biggest anti-junta demonstrations were held last September before they were broken up by soldiers and police in a bloody crackdown.
Asia World was also one of the contractors for the port of Yangon, and for the multimillion-dollar new capital Naypyidaw.
While Mr Lo has never been formally 'wanted' by the US government, he and others in similar positions have been under investigation many times.
In July 1997, then-US secretary of state Madeleine Albright said: 'Drug traffickers who once spent their days leading mule trains down jungle tracks are now leading lights in Burma's new market economy.
'We are increasingly concerned that Burma's drug traffickers, with official encouragement, are laundering their profits through Burmese banks and companies - some of which are joint ventures with foreign businesses.'
That perception remains the basis of the newest sanctions, which freeze bank accounts of the targeted individuals in the US, prohibit US citizens or entities from doing business with them - and make it impossible for them to obtain visas to the US.
nirmal@sph.com.sg
______________
Blacklisted businessman and Singaporean wife shunned publicity
Additional reporting by Diana Othman and Teo Cheng Wee
BOTH Myanmarese businessman Steven Law and his Singaporean wife Cecilia Ng Sor Hong should have made the Forbes list of who's who in the business world.
Instead, they keep a low profile, and perhaps for good reason.
Last month, the United States Treasury Department, in its bid to increase pressure on Myanmar over human rights abuses, slapped sanctions on a major conglomerate, Asia World, and 10 Singapore-based companies owned by Mr Law and his wife.
They include Golden Aaron, GA Ardmore, GA Capital, GA Foodstuffs, GA Land, GA Resort, GA Sentosa, GA Treasure, GA Whitehouse and SH Ng Trading.
Golden Aaron, which was started in 1995, clinched a deal in 2004 to explore the coast off Myanmar with the country's state-owned oil company and China's largest offshore oil and gas outfit.
Under the agreement, the three companies were to carry out oil and gas exploration in a 10,000 sq km area in Rakhine state in the south-west and a 15,534 sq km area in the gulf of Mottama off Tanintharyi in the far south.
According to the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority, the company has a paid-up capital of S$5 million.
US President George W. Bush said last month that the targeted sanctions 'focus on the assets of regime members and their cronies who grow rich while Burma's people suffer under their misrule'. Burma is the former name for Myanmar.
Mr Adam Szubin, director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), explained to The Sunday Times that if it did not sanction those companies, 'then Steven Law could sidestep the law by placing his assets into firms owned by his wife'. OFAC is an agency of the United States Treasury Department.
Mr Law, who also goes by his Burmese name Tun Myint Naing, is the son of Mr Lo Hsing Han - dubbed the 'Godfather of Heroin' by OFAC - and one of the wealthiest individuals in Myanmar. No photographs of his wife are available, and a check with high-society magazines here, The Peak and Prestige, drew a blank.
A freelance photographer, who wanted to be known only as Wong, told The Sunday Times that many 'rich and famous folks guard their privacy jealously'.
'I seem to remember the Laws being one of such who officially requested not to have their pictures taken or published,' he said.
Even friends and acquaintances know very little about the couple. They spoke to The Sunday Times only on the understanding that they are not identified, for fear that their businesses are affected or 'sanctioned'.
One acquaintance said Ms Ng, who was born in 1958, studied at Dunman Secondary School and Hwa Chong Junior College.
A check on the Internet found that she is the third daughter of Mr Ng Ah Khoon and Madam Hong Or Tew Chua. Attempts to contact Ms Ng or her parents at their home in Jansen Road have failed. There was no one at home each time The Sunday Times paid a visit.
Ms Ng married her college sweetheart, now a second-hand car dealer, and had three children by him. She divorced him and married Mr Law in 1995.
A businesswoman who used to play mahjong with her more than 20 years ago said she was 'friendly but kept a distance when it comes to her business of private affairs'.
'A group of us used to hang out socially but I haven't seen her since 1988. People change. I heard she had moved out of the country with her new husband,' she said.
Golden Aaron's office at Shenton House was shut when The Sunday Times visited it late last month. But its doors were open on another visit last Friday. The company sign on the glass door - listing Golden Aaron Pte Ltd, Kokang Singapore Pte Ltd and S H Ng Trading - had been taken down.
An employee said Ms Ng was out of the country. She would not say where she was or how long she had been out of Singapore.
The Sunday Times also visited Ms Ng's condominium home off Alexandra Road last Friday. No one was at home except for a cleaner, who said she cleaned the unit once a week.
She said Ms Ng was in Myanmar and that she spent most of her time there on business matters, returning to Singapore every one or two months.
The last time the cleaner saw her was during the Chinese New Year.
Aung San Suu Kyi debarred from contesting in the 2010 polls
Bangkok, 09 March, (Asiantribune.com): United Nations special envoy Ibrahim Gambari met with detained Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Saturday, after the military junta to make it clear that they would not allow her to contest polls scheduled for 2010.
Gambari arrived on Thursday on a mission to persuade the ruling regime to include Suu Kyi more in the reconciliation process.
According to state media reports, Information Minister Brigadier General Kyaw Hsan told Gambari on Friday that Burmese regime had rejected a request by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that the regime amends the new constitution to "ensure inclusiveness."
"The constitution has already been drafted and it should not be amended again," Kyaw Hsan said.
"Although we have opened the door for (a) 'win-win' situation, (the) NLD and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi are refusing to join hands," Kyaw Hsan said.
He urged the visiting envoy to support the junta's "seven step" road map and stop pursuing alternatives suggested by western democracies.
"We shall not accept any attempt to hinder or reverse the process of the seven-step road map. However, we will heartily welcome the positive suggestions of the UN to help implement the seven-step road map," Kyaw Hsan concluded.
Gambari reportedly promised to pass on the minister's "clarification" to the UN Secretary General.
In a letter dated February 19 to Burma's military supremo Senior General Than Shwe, the UN Secretary General called for an amendment to the current draft constitution that would drop a clause excluding all Burmese nationals married to foreigners from running for election.
Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest since May 2003, was married to the late Michael Aris, a British professor at Oxford University.
The new constitution, drafted by a military-appointed forum, will be voted on in a referendum in May.
It is widely expected that the constitution will be approved by the referendum, which is expected to be manipulated.
The referendum is part of the regime's so-called "seven-step road map" to democracy that will culminate in a general election now scheduled in 2010.
In the meantime, Ibrahim Gambari on the third day of his latest visit to Burma, met yesterday in Yangon separately with representatives of the National League for Democracy and later with the detained opposition leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.
The meeting between Ibrahim Gambari and Suu Kyi, took place at the Sein Le Kantha State House, lasted for an hour and a half, according to UN officials.
A Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Ms. Suu Kyi has been under house arrest for over four years, and has spent more than 11 years in detention since the NLD and its allies won the 1990 election with over 80 per cent of the parliamentary seats.
Ibrahim Gambari also met separately with representatives of the Pa-O National Organization, the National Unity Party and the Union Solidarity Development Association (USDA).
This is his third visit to Burma since the Government's crackdown on peaceful protesters last summer.
Source: Asian Tribune
Gambari arrived on Thursday on a mission to persuade the ruling regime to include Suu Kyi more in the reconciliation process.
According to state media reports, Information Minister Brigadier General Kyaw Hsan told Gambari on Friday that Burmese regime had rejected a request by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that the regime amends the new constitution to "ensure inclusiveness."
"The constitution has already been drafted and it should not be amended again," Kyaw Hsan said.
"Although we have opened the door for (a) 'win-win' situation, (the) NLD and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi are refusing to join hands," Kyaw Hsan said.
He urged the visiting envoy to support the junta's "seven step" road map and stop pursuing alternatives suggested by western democracies.
"We shall not accept any attempt to hinder or reverse the process of the seven-step road map. However, we will heartily welcome the positive suggestions of the UN to help implement the seven-step road map," Kyaw Hsan concluded.
Gambari reportedly promised to pass on the minister's "clarification" to the UN Secretary General.
In a letter dated February 19 to Burma's military supremo Senior General Than Shwe, the UN Secretary General called for an amendment to the current draft constitution that would drop a clause excluding all Burmese nationals married to foreigners from running for election.
Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest since May 2003, was married to the late Michael Aris, a British professor at Oxford University.
The new constitution, drafted by a military-appointed forum, will be voted on in a referendum in May.
It is widely expected that the constitution will be approved by the referendum, which is expected to be manipulated.
The referendum is part of the regime's so-called "seven-step road map" to democracy that will culminate in a general election now scheduled in 2010.
In the meantime, Ibrahim Gambari on the third day of his latest visit to Burma, met yesterday in Yangon separately with representatives of the National League for Democracy and later with the detained opposition leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.
The meeting between Ibrahim Gambari and Suu Kyi, took place at the Sein Le Kantha State House, lasted for an hour and a half, according to UN officials.
A Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Ms. Suu Kyi has been under house arrest for over four years, and has spent more than 11 years in detention since the NLD and its allies won the 1990 election with over 80 per cent of the parliamentary seats.
Ibrahim Gambari also met separately with representatives of the Pa-O National Organization, the National Unity Party and the Union Solidarity Development Association (USDA).
This is his third visit to Burma since the Government's crackdown on peaceful protesters last summer.
Source: Asian Tribune
Thursday, 6 March 2008
Corrupt regime authorities aiding the spread of opium production in Shan State
Mon News
March 5, 2008
The number of private producers of opium poppies has increased in Man Tong Township, Northern Shan State, Palaung area, according to a local source. The report is confirmed by The Palaung Women's Organization, based on Thai-Burma border in Mae Sot, which recently reported that opium production has become widespread since the Palaung Liberation Army gave up arms to the Burmese Army in 2005.
Many wealthy businessmen in Palaung Area, Man Tong Township, Shan State, are investing their money in the poppies, used to make lucrative drugs like opium and heroin. Most opium crops are grown in the hills, where they are not likely to be seen by local people, said the source, who recently left Palaung area to the Thai-Burma border area.
According to the US State Department, Burma is the second largest producer of opium poppies, second only to Afghanistan. While a United Nations Development Project subsidizes other crops in an attempt to limit opium production the program extends only into regions controlled by the Burmese Army. As the area is not suited to rice farming, the main agricultural product in the area is tea, or would be were opium farming not more lucrative.
Most opium products are traded to Chinese merchants at a price of one million one kyat per viss [Burmese measurement, equivalent to 1.6 kilograms]. The local merchants then trade to businessmen in China at double the price.
Many local people are afraid to grow opium crops because they fear government crack downs. While poorer or small-scale poppy farmers are likely to be arrested, the source from Shan state said that bribery means the larger projects of wealthy businessmen are rarely harassed. The local authorities know the location of opium crops, he said, but they do nothing.
Most people in the area can barely provide for their families, and work as laborers on the poppy farms for 2,000 kyat a day.
As the local businessman get rich, the people suffer. "Our community is broken. Young men and women are addicted opium. If a husband uses drugs, the wife cannot refuse him and she has to use opium too," said the source. "Finding opium in the area is easy.
Many people are addicted. There is much illegal gambling. Things are often stolen. People are scared by their community, and many would like to leave." But while people are afraid of the changes in their community wrought by opium, they are also afraid to complain because of the economic relationship between local authorities and opium producers.
March 5, 2008
The number of private producers of opium poppies has increased in Man Tong Township, Northern Shan State, Palaung area, according to a local source. The report is confirmed by The Palaung Women's Organization, based on Thai-Burma border in Mae Sot, which recently reported that opium production has become widespread since the Palaung Liberation Army gave up arms to the Burmese Army in 2005.
Many wealthy businessmen in Palaung Area, Man Tong Township, Shan State, are investing their money in the poppies, used to make lucrative drugs like opium and heroin. Most opium crops are grown in the hills, where they are not likely to be seen by local people, said the source, who recently left Palaung area to the Thai-Burma border area.
According to the US State Department, Burma is the second largest producer of opium poppies, second only to Afghanistan. While a United Nations Development Project subsidizes other crops in an attempt to limit opium production the program extends only into regions controlled by the Burmese Army. As the area is not suited to rice farming, the main agricultural product in the area is tea, or would be were opium farming not more lucrative.
Most opium products are traded to Chinese merchants at a price of one million one kyat per viss [Burmese measurement, equivalent to 1.6 kilograms]. The local merchants then trade to businessmen in China at double the price.
Many local people are afraid to grow opium crops because they fear government crack downs. While poorer or small-scale poppy farmers are likely to be arrested, the source from Shan state said that bribery means the larger projects of wealthy businessmen are rarely harassed. The local authorities know the location of opium crops, he said, but they do nothing.
Most people in the area can barely provide for their families, and work as laborers on the poppy farms for 2,000 kyat a day.
As the local businessman get rich, the people suffer. "Our community is broken. Young men and women are addicted opium. If a husband uses drugs, the wife cannot refuse him and she has to use opium too," said the source. "Finding opium in the area is easy.
Many people are addicted. There is much illegal gambling. Things are often stolen. People are scared by their community, and many would like to leave." But while people are afraid of the changes in their community wrought by opium, they are also afraid to complain because of the economic relationship between local authorities and opium producers.
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