AP – South Korea urges Myanmar to ensure democracy
NASDAQ – Suu Kyi Lawyers Challenge Witness Ban In Myanmar Trial
NASDAQ – US Intruder To Suu Kyi’s Myanmar Home Acted Alone – Lawyer
Amnesty International – Opposition leader’s detention keeps spotlight on Myanmar
The Jakarta Post – Will Myanmar follow North Korea’s way?
The Washington Post – What the U.N. Can’t Ignore in Burma
MSNBC – Suu Kyi trial brings quiet outrage in Myanmar
Asahi Shimbun – ?Time to make good on promise to Myanmar
The Daily Star – Thai FM pushes for road through Myanmar
Bdnews24 – ‘Political change in Myanmar will benefit all’
The Manila Times – Probe commences on Suu Kyi home intruder
The Hindu – Woodcutter swallowed by crocodile in Myanmar Archipelago
The Hindu – Three Myanmar nationals arrested in Manipur
The Nation – Thai-Burmese border trade down on economic crisis
BWFD(Weblog) – Burmese soldiers assaulted and detained youth for preventing rape
ReliefWeb – Working together to make a difference
VOA News – UN Calls for Help for Burma’s Cyclone Damaged Farms
Scotsman – We have talent and Burma has tragedy
The Examiner – The pagoda’s collapse and the Burmese junta
Upstreamonline – PTTEP may delay M9 gas to 2015
Mizzima News – Burma ranks 126th in Global Peace Index
The Irrawaddy – Hints of Burma-Thailand Tension Appear in State-run Media
The Irrawaddy – Burmese Legal Experts Criticize Suu Kyi Trial
DVB News – Police warn locals to stay silent about pagoda victims
DVB News – Forced labour victim denied medical care
************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ***

South Korea urges Myanmar to ensure democracy
AP - Wednesday, June 3

SEOGWIPO, South Korea (AP) – South Korean President Lee Myung-bak urged Myanmar to take steps to promote democracy during a meeting with its prime minister Tuesday, Lee’s office said.

Lee held talks with Gen. Thein Sein on the sidelines of a two-day summit between South Korea and leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

“President Lee expressed the hope that the Myanmar government would address the concerns of the international community by making sure that national unity and democracy take root in a substantial manner through dialogue and compromise,” Lee’s office said in a press release.

The statement offered no specifics and did not say how Thein Sein responded.

The meeting came as detained Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is on trial in Yangon for allegedly violating the terms of her house arrest. Closing arguments are scheduled for Friday.

Suu Kyi has been in detention without trial for more than 13 of the past 19 years. Her party won the country’s last elections held in 1990, but the military, which has run Myanmar since 1962, did not allow her to take power.

The junta, which has come under strong international criticism, says it is committed to democracy and will hold elections next year, though serious doubts persist about its intentions.

South Korea was once ruled by a series of military-backed strongmen. Nationwide pro-democracy demonstrations in the summer of 1987 forced then president Chun Doo-hwan, a former general who took power in a coup, to restore direct presidential elections.

Lee and Thein Sein agreed that their nations would cooperate to further expand trade and investment, the release also said.

************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ***

Jun 2, 2009 | 12:33PM
NASDAQ – Suu Kyi Lawyers Challenge Witness Ban In Myanmar Trial

YANGON (AFP)–Lawyers for Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi said Tuesday they had asked a court to overturn an earlier ban that prevented three defense witnesses from testifying at her trial.

Myanmar’s military junta has charged the Nobel laureate with breaching the terms of her house arrest after an American man, John Yettaw, swam uninvited to her lakeside home in May, leaving her facing up to five years in jail.

Judges at the closed court in Yangon’s Insein prison last month refused to allow three people including two members of her party to testify at the trial, in which final arguments are due Friday.

“We have filed a revision order to the court today… We want to call the other three witnesses,” Kyi Win, her main laywer, told AFP.

“The prosecution had 14 witnesses and we had only one so far. If you look at the numbers it is one-sided, and that is why we have made this application, ” he said.

Nyan Win, the spokesman for Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, said after going to court to file the application that it would be heard on Wednesday.

The three barred witnesses were Tin Oo, a journalist who was Myanmar’s longest serving prisoner until his release in September; Win Tin, the detained deputy chief of her party, and lawyer Khin Moe Moe.

The only person to testify last week for the defense was a legal expert.

“Tin Oo is a very important defense witness because he was a witness to the Depeyin incident,” Kyi Win said, referring to a deadly attack on Aung San Suu Kyi’s motorcade by a pro-junta mob in May 2003.

Aung San Suu Kyi and Win Tin have both been detained ever since the attack.

Her legal team has questioned the basis of the laws under which she was held under house arrest for the past six years – the detention order was lifted last week – and argued that the charges against her are invalid.

She remains in prison awaiting the verdict.

Kyi Win said that final arguments in the case could be delayed until after Friday if the court agrees to hear their appeal to admit the extra witnesses.

Aung San Suu Kyi has spent 13 of the last 19 years in detention.

Her party won Myanmar’s last elections, in 1990, but the result was never honoured by the military, which has ruled the country since 1962.

The trial has drawn international condemnation but Myanmar’s ruling generals say the case is an internal matter and have accused Aung San Suu Kyi of covering up Yettaw’s visit.

One official even suggested that the American was a “secret agent or her boyfriend.”

But Yettaw’s lawyer Khin Maung Oo said earlier Tuesday that the former U.S. military veteran didn’t take orders or money from outside organisations to carry out his bizarre intrusion into Aung San Suu Kyi’s residence.

He said that Yettaw, a devout Mormon, was a “sincere and pious” person who believed God had told him to warn her and the government after he had a vision that she would be assassinated.

“There is no issue of him acting on someone’s instruction to him or that some organization provided money to him to do so,” Khin Maung Oo said of his client, who also faces up to five years in jail.

Aung San Suu Kyi has testified that she allowed Yettaw to have “temporary shelter” for a night. She blamed the authorities for the intrusion, saying they failed to provide proper security.

************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ***

Jun 2, 2009 | 12:08PM
NASDAQ – US Intruder To Suu Kyi’s Myanmar Home Acted Alone – Lawyer

YANGON, Burma (AFP)–A U.S. man who swam to the home of Aung San Suu Kyi wasn’t paid by or taking orders from any outside organization, his lawyer said Tuesday ahead of final arguments in the trial of Myanmar’s democracy icon.

Myanmar’s military regime has expressed skepticism over John Yettaw’s explanation for his visit to the Nobel Laureate’s lakeside home, with one official suggesting that the American was a “secret agent or her boyfriend.”

But lawyer Khin Maung Oo said the U.S. military veteran was a “sincere and pious” person who believed God had told him to warn Suu Kyi and the government after he had a vision that she would be assassinated.

“There is no issue of him acting on someone’s instruction to him or that some organization provided money to him to do so,” Khin Maung Oo said of his client, who like Suu Kyi faces up to five years in jail.

“As far as I know, he’s a very sincere and pious person. He cooperated with the court. He answered the same during the interrogation and at the trial,” he said.

Hearings in the trial of Suu Kyi and Yettaw have been adjourned until Friday when lawyers will present their closing arguments. The trial is taking place mostly behind closed doors.

Yettaw, a devout Mormon, testified in court last week that he had a dream in which Suu Kyi was killed by “terrorists” and that he swam across the lake using a pair of homemade flippers to alert her.

Last month Myanmar’s consul general in Hong Kong posted a letter on the Internet saying that “we have no idea whether he is either secret agent or her boyfriend.”

The country’s deputy defense minister, Maj. Gen. Aye Myint, said Sunday that Suu Kyi had deliberately covered up the visit.

Suu Kyi has branded the trial as biased and said that she allowed Yettaw to have “temporary shelter” for a night. She blamed Myanmar authorities for the intrusion, saying they failed to provide proper security.

The opposition leader has spent 13 of the last 19 years in detention. Her party won Myanmar’s last elections, in 1990, but the result was never honored by the military, which has ruled the country since 1962.

************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ***

Amnesty International – Opposition leader’s detention keeps spotlight on Myanmar
1 June 2009

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s continued detention in Myanmar puts the human rights spotlight on a country that has denied both economic rights and freedom of expression to its people in the past year.

The Burmese opposition leader’s current trial, for violating the conditions of her house arrest, was due to resume on Monday but has been postponed until Friday 5 June. Its outcome is not expected to end the detention she has endured for thirteen of the past 19 years.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is one of more than 2,100 political prisoners in Myanmar. Many others were denied economic rights in 2008– a key message in Amnesty International’ s 2009 Report, published on Thursday 28 May. This was no more apparent than in the wake of Cyclone Nargis.

It is roughly a year ago to the day, on 25 May 2008, that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was able to successfully negotiate an opening of the country to international aid and assistance during a donor’s conference in Yangon.

This was almost a full month after the cyclone struck on 2-3 May, during which time tens of thousands of Burmese people suffered needlessly as a result of the Myanmar government’s refusal to allow foreign aid to enter the country, as well as its obstruction of domestic relief efforts.

Amnesty International documented cases of forced eviction and restrictions on movement and the obstruction and misuse of aid.

It is impossible to know how many of the 140,000 people who died or are missing were victims of the government’s inaction, as opposed to the cyclone itself.

But the numbers would certainly have been far lower had the government not violated its own citizens’ economic rights on such a widespread and systematic scale.

Adding insult to injury, in the year following the cyclone, at least 21 people were detained (and remain in detention) for their cyclone relief efforts; they are prisoners of conscience. They join Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in awaiting freedom and justice.

************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ***

The Jakarta Post – Will Myanmar follow North Korea’s way?
Lilian Budianto, Jakarta
Tue, 06/02/2009 2:05 PM  |  World

As North Korea’s recent nuclear test raises tensions in Asia, rogue state Myanmar’s nuclear program is ringing alarm bells in the Western world, say Greenpeace and a local expert.

Myanmar’s notorious junta, which has been subject to Western economic sanctions because of its poor human rights record, has attracted criticism over its plan to develop nuclear reactors. In 2002 it was reported that the Russian government had agreed to help the military junta build a nuclear research facility that would be used to develop reactors for medical and electricity resources.

The US has shunned Myanmar’s nuclear plans, saying Yangon has neither the legal framework nor the provisions that would safeguard its nuclear program from posing a security threat.

“Nuclear power and nuclear arms are different sides of the same coin. Every nuclear-power- wielding state can turn into a nuclear-armed nation,” said Tessa de Ryck, an anti- nuclear campaigner from Greenpeace Southeast Asia.

“North Korea is an example. Once a country possesses a nuclear power plant, it is hard for the international community to restrict ambitions to develop nuclear weapons.”

The global community failed to persuade North Korea from conducting another nuclear test last week after the collapse of six-party talks last year. The United States is yet to determine how it will respond to the North test, which has provoked more hostilities with neighboring South Korea and Japan.

Japan is reported likely to persuade China, who has provided economic support for Pyongyang, to take a tougher stance to the North regime. China has also ensured economic support for Myanmar, undermining economic sanctions imposed by the West.

Ten ASEAN members signed the 1995 Bangkok Treaty that outlined a nuclear-weapon- free zone and an agreement not to abuse nuclear technology. However, precedents have shown the bloc has no leverage in meddling in the domestic affairs of member countries in case of any standoffs.

ASEAN consists of Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philip-pines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Myanmar has become the center of attention recently over the fresh trial of opposition leader and Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for 13 out of the 19 years since her party won a landslide victory in 1990. ASEAN leaders have come under fire for their leniency toward Myanmar at a time when the West has been considering imposing yet more sanctions on Myanmar.

“No one can ask Myanmar to adhere to the human rights commitment they have made under the ASEAN Charter that entered into force last year,” said Bantarto Bandoro, the chairman of the Indonesian Institution for Strategic Studies. “If Myanmar later abuses the nuclear plant to produce arms, there would be no one that could ask them to stop.”

Greenpeace has predicted that nuclear power plants in the ASEAN region would be able to produce up to 200 nuclear bombs a year, considering it takes only 5 kilograms of plutonium to make a nuclear warhead.

Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines have already notified the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) of their intention to operate nuclear power plants in the near future as an alternative to non-renewable energy resources.

Indonesia relies on coal, oil and gas to generate electricity for its population of 240 million. Along with the rise in industrial production, the government has sought to develop four nuclear plants that could support 10 percent of its electricity demands by 2025.

Similarly, Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam all aim to either build or operate nuclear power plants by 2020, while the Philippines has plans to revive its closed Bataan nuclear power plant.

Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand, Myanmar and Malaysia have signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ***

The Washington Post – What the U.N. Can’t Ignore in Burma
By Pedro Nikken and Geoffrey Nice
Tuesday, June 2, 2009

The trial of the world’s only imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize recipient, Aung San Suu Kyi, has once again catapulted events in Burma onto the front pages of newspapers around the globe. The leader of Burma’s struggle for human rights and democracy has been charged with violating the terms of her house arrest after an American citizen swam across a lake and broke into her home last month. Heads of state from Asia and the West, celebrities, and U.N. leaders such as human rights chief Navi Pillay have responded strongly, demanding not only an end to the trial in Burma’s kangaroo courts but the immediate release of Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for 13 of the past 19 years.

With the verdict expected this week, many eyes remain glued to Burma. We hope this global attention will result in long-overdue action.

For while the imprisonment of Aung San Suu Kyi, without trial, has long been denounced, a less-publicized travesty has been underway in Burma for much of the past 15 years. Organizations such as Human Rights Watch, Human Rights First and Amnesty International have reported on the crimes against humanity and war crimes committed under the rule of Burma’s military regime, including the recruitment of tens of thousands of child soldiers and attacks on ethnic minority civilians. The former U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Burma, Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, reported last year that he had received information indicating that the military regime had destroyed, forcibly displaced or forced the abandonment of more than 3,000 villages in eastern Burma, where ethnic minorities predominate. At least 1 million people fled their homes as a result of the attacks, he said, escaping as refugees and internally displaced persons. This is comparable to the number of villages that have been harmed in the Darfur region of Sudan.

Inexplicably, the U.N. Security Council has not systematically investigated these abuses, which probably rise to the level of crimes against humanity and war crimes. So a group of jurists from the United States, Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa — of which we were part — commissioned a report by the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School to determine whether the United Nations is sufficiently aware of the seriousness of the charges and willing to pursue justice. The Harvard team — relying only on U.N. documents and not information from human rights groups — examined four international human rights violations documented by U.N. bodies over the past 15 years: sexual violence, forced displacement, torture and extrajudicial killings.

It found that, indeed, the United Nations is well aware that such abuses are taking place in Burma. Numerous U.N. special rapporteurs, the U.N. General Assembly, the U.N. Commission on Human Rights (now Human Rights Council), and the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women have repeatedly documented and cited human rights abuses that rise to the level of crimes, using language such as “widespread” and “systematic, ” which are key elements to proving the existence of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The Harvard report noted that the United Nations has acknowledged that rights abuses in Burma have taken place with impunity. Moreover, U.N. reports observe that most often the Burmese military commits these grave human rights abuses. Key U.N. experts have acknowledged that there is no independent judiciary in Burma, with Tomás Ojea Quintana, U.N. special rapporteur on human rights, stating as recently as November that “There is no independent and impartial judiciary system” in Burma.

Tragedies such as last year’s cyclone and this spring’s sham trial inevitably draw the world’s eyes to Burma. We should maintain our gaze. Given that the United Nations is aware of the scale and severity of rights abuses in Burma, it is incumbent on the Security Council to authorize a commission of inquiry into crimes against humanity and war crimes in Burma. In previous, similar cases — such as the situation in the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda and Darfur — the council voted to create such a commission to investigate charges and recommend actions. So many U.N. bodies have documented severe human rights abuses that such a move on Burma is not only justified but long overdue.

Geoffrey Nice was the principal prosecution trial attorney in the case against Slobodan Milosevic in the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague. Pedro Nikken was president of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and is an executive committee member of the International Commission of Jurists.

************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ***

MSNBC – Suu Kyi trial brings quiet outrage in Myanmar
No mass protests despite anguish over plight of pro-democracy leader
updated 10:49 a.m. PT, Mon., June 1, 2009

YANGON, Myanmar – The spray-painted demands appear overnight: “Free Aung San Suu Kyi” read the scrawls on walls across this city – only to be whitewashed by security forces as soon as they are discovered.

Since the trial of Myanmar’s pro-democracy leader began two weeks ago, these small signs of defiance hint at the undercurrent of anger over the treatment of a woman considered to be a living icon by many of her compatriots.

But out in public, under the watchful gaze of the military regime, supporters feel helpless to do more as the trial winds to an end, with closing arguments scheduled for Friday.

There is little sign that private anguish will explode into the mass protests – all violently suppressed – that have marked the history of Myanmar, also known as Burma, since the military began its rule in 1962.

“I’m so upset about what has happened in my country,” said Zin, a 28-year-old housewife who, like most Burmese, won’t give her full name for fear of retaliation. “People are angry and people are sad, but we can’t do anything for her. We have no power.”

Charges she violated her house arrest

Suu Kyi, 63, a Nobel Peace laureate, is being tried on charges of violating her house arrest after an American, John W. Yettaw, swam uninvited to her lakeshore home and stayed for two days.

She has already been held in detention for 13 of the past 19 years, including the past six years. Closing arguments have been delayed until Friday, but expectations are high that she will be found guilty since Myanmar’s courts operate under the command of the ruling military.

Lawyers for Suu Kyi met Monday to prepare for the trial’s closing arguments, said Nyan Win, one of her defense team and a spokesman for her National League for Democracy party.

“We are very confident that we will win the case if everything goes according to law,” said Nyan Win. The defense has not contested the basic facts of the case, but argues instead that the relevant law has been misapplied by the authorities.

The trial has drawn condemnation from the international community and Suu Kyi’s local supporters, who worry that the military junta has found an excuse to keep her detained through elections planned for next year.

But with memories of the government’s bloody crackdown against the Buddhist monk-led uprising in 2007 still vivid, few people are willing to challenge a regime with no qualms about using violence against its own citizens. At least 31 people were killed that September, including a Japanese journalist, the U.N. says.

Activists learned a bitter lesson

Aung, a 55-year-old businessman who witnessed the military’s response to the protests two years ago, said the Burmese learned a bitter lesson from that experience.

Thousands were detained in the aftermath of demonstrations that drew 100,000 people into Yangon’s streets. Hundreds of activists were sentenced to lengthy prison terms.

“The person who becomes involved in protests, their whole family is persecuted. If you want to be brave, OK, but do you think all your family must be brave too?” he said. “Nobody wants to risk that now.”

Longtime observers say it is unlikely that major public demonstrations will follow Suu Kyi’s sentencing.

“If Suu Kyi is found guilty and jailed, there will be much popular anger, but it won’t make a real difference because (the government) is well-equipped and experienced in dealing with the people’s protests,” said Donald Seekins, a Myanmar expert at Japan’s Meio University.

Soldiers already posted throughout city

Seekins said the regime has already posted soldiers throughout Yangon, the largest city, “and can suppress demonstrations with little difficulty.”

For a nation still recovering from the devastation of Cyclone Nargis last year, which left at least 138,000 dead, the ongoing economic hardship makes coping day-to-day – not politics – the priority for many Burmese, said Aung.

“People are so disturbed, so angry” about Suu Kyi, he said, clenching his fist for emphasis. “But Nargis was a big hit. Everybody’s suffering and when people suffer, they don’t have time to think about anything.”

In the streets of Yangon this past week, there was little evidence of heightened tension, with businesses operating normally.

However, increased security could be seen around Suu Kyi’s gently decaying lakeshore home as well as near her party’s headquarters as a key anniversary was marked – 19 years since Suu Kyi’s party won a landslide victory at the ballot box but were prevented from taking office.

Some stalwarts still keeping the faith

A few political stalwarts have still managed to keep the faith. At a small celebration Wednesday attended by foreign diplomats, senior party members wore T-shirts calling for Suu Kyi’s freedom and then released a total of 64 doves and balloons into the air at the dilapidated party offices. She will turn 64 on June 19.

Meanwhile, several dozen faithful, including 80-year-old former political prisoner Win Tin, have been holding daily vigils in the rain outside the gates of Insein prison, where Suu Kyi is being held, despite the presence of plainclothes security videotaping their movements and recording their identities.

Acknowledging the difficulties faced by regular Burmese, Win Tin said last week that “everyone is angry, but people are concerned with earning their daily bread. They are afraid, and there is no leadership.”

Even if people wanted to talk about the incarceration of “The Lady,” as Suu Kyi is known, the dangers of criticizing the ruling regime too openly are known to everyone, said Thein, a 48-year-old English teacher.

Instead, he said, political discussions are reduced to furtive whisperings in neighborhood teashops and small gatherings in private homes.

“People have been frustrated a long time,” Thein said. “We don’t trust anything. We don’t trust each other. Always we think, ‘Is he a spy?’ The rule is: ‘Don’t talk politics.’”

************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ***

POINT OF VIEW/ SPECIAL TO THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
Asahi Shimbun – ?Time to make good on promise to Myanmar
Benedict Rogers
2009/6/2

Burmese democracy leader and Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi stood trial last month on new, false charges –despite having spent 13 of the past 19 years under house arrest. She has committed no crime: Indeed, it is the regime that is criminal.

Her imprisonment is typical of this immoral and barbaric junta. A year ago, the military regime in Myanmar (Burma) imposed a sham Constitution through a rigged referendum, which enshrines military rule and excludes the democracy movement and major ethnic groups. The referendum was a rubber stamp, in which the regime claimed 99 percent turnout, with 92.4 percent in favor of the new Constitution. Yet, the authorities threatened, harassed, intimidated and bribed the people into voting “yes,” and in some places people were denied the vote altogether; local officials cast ballots on their behalf. The backdrop was a law which prohibited criticism of the Constitution and imposed prison sentences on campaigners for a no vote.

The referendum was held just a week after Myanmar’s worst humanitarian disaster. A cyclone struck the country on May 2. The storm, and the regime’s initial refusal of international aid, caused the deaths of at least 140,000 people and the displacement of 2.5 million others. The regime’s failure to help the victims, and its rejection–and subsequent restriction- -of outside help, was criminal. To proceed with a vote when people were struggling for survival added to the callousness.

The regime’s inhumanity was exposed for all to see, though it was a continuation of its record of barbarity. The brutal crackdown on Buddhist monks in the “Saffron Revolution” in 2007 shocked the world. Among the dead was Japanese photojournalist Kenji Nagai. The junta’s decades-long campaign of ethnic cleansing in eastern Myanmar amounts to crimes against humanity–rape as a weapon of war, forced labor, the use of human minesweepers, the killing of civilians, and the destruction of more than 3,300 villages have turned Myanmar into Asia’s Darfur. Suu Kyi is now the world’s only detained Nobel Peace Prize laureate. The United Nations has ruled that her detention violates international and Burmese law.

With this background, one would expect Japan to be outspoken. As the leading democracy in the region, Japan could use its influence to promote change in Myanmar. Instead, the Foreign Ministry is pursuing a program of extraordinary appeasement.

Myanmar’s regime recently announced the release of 6,313 prisoners, and Japan welcomed their release. However, only 30 of these are political prisoners. Japan’s Foreign Ministry made no mention of the more than 2,100 prisoners of conscience who languish in prison, subjected to horrific torture. In the past the regime has recruited criminals released from prison into its proxy militia organizations, which it uses to physically attack democracy activists. It would not be surprising if the regime recruited those recently released for the same purpose.

In the past year, I have met with Japanese Foreign Ministry officials on two occasions. Both times I thought I had entered a scene from “Alice in Wonderland.” Prior to the referendum, when I raised concerns about the process, a Foreign Ministry official sprang to the regime’s defense. “They are trying their best,” he told me. “No system is perfect.” He compared Myanmar’s referendum with the Florida count in the 2000 U.S. presidential election, acknowledging that perhaps some “mistakes” happen. When I reminded him that Burmese campaigners for a vote against the Constitution were jailed, he argued that the junta had introduced “due process.” When asked to explain, he replied: “They don’t just lock people up. They have a trial first.”

In March, I met the same man again, and his rhetoric had not changed. The regime is planning elections in 2010, which will be as rigged as the referendum. But the Foreign Ministry welcomes the elections and is providing technical assistance. I reminded him that no one believes these elections will be remotely free and fair. His answer? “It is very difficult to know what is the meaning of free and fair.”

And now, after Suu Kyi has been moved to the notorious Insein Prison, on new, completely false charges, the Foreign Ministry merely “observes” the situation with “deep concern.” Her defense lawyer’s license has been revoked, but Japan still hopes that the international community will give “high regard for a general election in 2010.” Come on.

Japan has a historical obligation to Myanmar, from its relationship with Aung San and the Thirty Comrades through its occupation of Burma in World War II to Suu Kyi’s time studying in Kyoto and the murder of Kenji Nagai. Foreign Ministry officials of the kind I have met do Japan no favors at all. Their acquiescence in the regime’s dirty work should be replaced with a robust rejection of the regime’s sham elections, and pro-active leadership in support of an arms embargo at the U.N. Security Council. Japan should introduce targeted financial sanctions aimed at the generals ruling Myanmar, and support a U.N. commission of inquiry into crimes against humanity. It is time to fulfill the false promises Japan made almost 70 years ago–to help the Burmese people liberate themselves and have the genuine independence they have sacrificed so much to achieve.
* * *
Benedict Rogers is a writer and human rights activist with Christian Solidarity Worldwide.

************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ***

Tuesday, June 2, 2009 11:09 PM GMT+06:00
The Daily Star – Thai FM pushes for road through Myanmar
Staff Correspondent

Foreign Minister of Thailand Kasit Priomya yesterday said Bangladesh-Myanmar road is “more viable” route of the proposed Asian Highways for connecting Thailand with western countries.

He said his country was ready to work with Bangladesh on repatriation of Rohingya refugees, a common problem for two countries, back to Myanmar.

Priomya, who came to Dhaka yesterday on a two-day official visit, said political change in the military-ruled Myanmar was “very much needed” for regional stability.

While talking to reporters at a joint-press briefing at the foreign ministry, he said Bangladesh and Thailand could easily be connected by road via Myanmar, subject to the approval of the three governments.

He said an option was there to stretch a road from India through a part Bangladesh and then back into India ending in southern China via Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. “But the option for a road from Chittagong to Myanmar and Thailand looks quite viable in terms of the international thought,” he added.

The minister said changes in Myanmar would resolve the issues of internally displaced Myanmarese along the Bangladesh-Myanmar and Myanmar-Thailand borders.

“So changes in Myanmar are very much needed. It is not only a necessity for the security of Myanmar but also for all the neighbouring countries including Bangladesh and Thailand,” Priomya said.

Speaking at the briefing, Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dipu Moni said Thailand agreed to give on-arrival visas to Bangladeshi diplomats and government officials.

She hoped the on-arrival visas would be available for all Bangladeshis in future.

She said Bangkok extended support to Dhaka’s initiative to set up the headquarters of Bimstec in the Bangladesh capital.

Dipu Moni and Kasit Priomya led their respective sides to the official talks at the foreign ministry. Top officials from the ministries concerned attended the meeting.

The issues that featured in the meeting include infrastructure development in Bangladesh, cooperation in energy sector, Bangladesh’s inclusion in the Asian Highways, Bangladesh-Thailand road link through Myanmar, maritime port linkage between Bangladesh and Thailand, trade imbalance between the two countries, tourism and cultural exchange.

She said the Thai authorities have assured Bangladesh of employing Bangladeshi skilled labour and other professionals. “The Thai foreign minister sought cooperation in education sector, especially in the teaching profession. Thailand has demands for English teachers in different universities. ”

The two sides discussed cooperation in combating piracy and trafficking of small arms and drugs.

They also discussed cooperation in defence and intelligence information sharing.

Bangladesh and Thailand have a huge trade gap in favour of Thailand and both the countries agreed to remove the imbalance.

Bangladesh prefers increased export of its goods to Thailand and invited more investment. Bangladesh imports goods worth $500 million while exports goods worth only $24 million.

Dipu Moni said Bangladeshi pharmaceuticals have a good prospect in Thailand since the country needs more medicine.

On his arrival, Priomya held a meeting with Communications Minister Syed Abul Hossain at the secretariat.

The Thai minister is scheduled to call on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. He will visit a Buddhist temple at Kamalapur to distribute rice at an orphanage before departing today.

************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ***

Bdnews24 – ‘Political change in Myanmar will benefit all’
Mon, Jun 1st, 2009 9:38 pm BdST

Dhaka, June 1 (bdnews24.com)-Thailand’s foreign minister Kasit Piromya has said political change in Myanmar is “very much needed” for the stability of all neighbouring countries.

Piromya, who came to Dhaka Monday on a two-day official visit, said he and his Bangladesh counterpart had “extensive discussions” on the repatriation of Rohingya refugees.

The minister told a joint-press briefing at the foreign ministry that changes in the Myanmar military regime could resolve the problems of Rohingya refugees and the displaced people along the Bangladesh-Myanmar and Myanmar-Thailand borders.

“So, the changes in Myanmar are very much needed. It not only is a necessity for the security of Myanmar but also for all the neighbouring countries including Bangladesh and Thailand.”

Priomya said the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia and Bangladesh went through military regimes “to some extent”.

“All of us have got rid of the military authoritative regimes and emerged to be having democratic society.”

He said Indonesia, which was ruled by one man for 30 years, had successes.

“So the question is to be posed to the situation in Myanmar. Why can’t they also emerge from that to an open society?

“It would be good for the whole region. It would good for all of us,” he said.

Asian Highway

On the proposed Asian highway, Piromya said Bangladesh-Myanmar- Thailand was the most viable route.

He said Bangladesh and Thailand could easily be connected by road via Myanmar, subject to the approval of the three governments.

“I think there are roads inside Bangladesh, there are roads inside Thailand and there are some roads in Myanmar.

“There are talks of the East-West corridor and the talks on Asian super highway coming from Afghanistan, Pakistan to Vietnam and so on have been in the pipeline for long.

“And the Asian highway is the part and parcel of the ESCAP study for so many years.”

He said there was an option for stretching a road from India through a part of Bangladesh to India again en route to southern China via Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.

“The option for a road from Chittagong to Myanmar and Thailand looks quite viable in terms of the international perspective, ” he said.

“This is an on-going process.”

The Thai foreign minister said his country and Myanmar had cross-border roads.

“So, why should we not extend the (Myanmar) roads to Bangladesh?”

In that case, he observed, the products can go both ways.

“We have made quite a few linkages with Myanmar and you have learnt about the linkages between Bangladesh and Myanmar.

“It very much also depends on the key security conditions in Myanmar

He said the political security was also important.

On-arrival visa

Dipu Moni said Thailand agreed to give on-arrival visa to Bangladeshi diplomats and government officials.

She hoped the on-arrival visa would be available for the general public too in future.

Bangkok, she said, also extended support to Dhaka’s initiative to set up the headquarters of BIMSTEC in Bangladesh capital.

The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation, or BIMSTEC, groups together Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand. The seven-country forum aims to achieve its own free trade area by 2017.

bdnews24

************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ***

Wednesday, June 03, 2009
The Manila Times – Probe commences on Suu Kyi home intruder

YANGON: A US man who swam to the home of Aung San Suu Kyi was not paid by or taking orders from any outside organization, his lawyer said Tuesday ahead of final arguments in the trial of Myanmar’s democracy icon.

Myanmar’s military regime has expressed skep-ticism over John Yettaw’s explanation for his visit to the Nobel laureate’s lakeside home, with one official suggesting that the American was a “secret agent or her boyfriend.”

But lawyer Khin Maung Oo said the devout Mormon was a “sincere and pious” person who believed God had told him to warn Aung San Suu Kyi and the government after he had a vision that she would be assassinated.

“There is no issue of him acting on someone’s instruction to him or that some organization provided money to him to do so,” Khin Maung Oo said of his client, who like Aung San Suu Kyi faces up to five years in jail.

“As far as I know, he’s a very sincere and pious person. He cooperated with the court. He answered the same during the interrogation and at the trial,” Khin Maung Oo said.

The lawyer added that photos taken by the American in Aung San Suu Kyi’s house-which the prosecution have focused on during the trial-were “just to show his daughter, not for publicity or not to communicate to anyone.”

Hearings in the mostly closed trial of Aung San Suu Kyi and Yettaw have been adjourned until Friday when lawyers will present their closing arguments. The trial has drawn international condemnation.

Yettaw, a former US military veteran, testified in court last week that he had a dream in which Aung San Suu Kyi was killed by “terrorists” and that he swam across the lake using a pair of homemade flippers to alert her.

************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ***

The Hindu – Woodcutter swallowed by crocodile in Myanmar Archipelago
Tuesday, June 2, 2009

YANGON (Xinhua): A woodcutter was swallowed to death by a crocodile in south Myanmar’s remote islands of Myeik Archipelago, local media reported Tuesday.

Win Naing Oo, 30, was killed by the crocodile which appeared suddenly from a canal when the man was back from work and crossing the canal last week.

Informed by the victim’s partner who escaped from being swallowed, villagers nearby, using motor boats, could only find and capture dead the crocodile on the next day, the report said.

The body of the woodcutter was found inside the 5-meter-long dead crocodile after surgical operation in the presence of the local authorities, the report added.

************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ***

The Hindu – Three Myanmar nationals arrested in Manipur
Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Imphal (PTI): Three Myanmar nationals have been arrested by Assam Rifles personnel for not having valid travel documents in Manipur’s Chandel district bordering the neighbouring country, official sources said on Tuesday.

Sources said the security personnel during a normal checking of vehicles at Tengnoupal area in Chandel district on Sunday last found three Myanmar nationals travelling in a vehicle without valid documents.

The foreigners were identified as Aung Tin Tin (28), M D Amin (18) and Mojibur Rehaman (20), sources said adding that a sum of Rs. 8600 Indian currency was also recovered from them.

The three have been handed over to the police station of border town of Moreh.

Sources said security personnel had also nabbed two Myanmar nationals early last week from the same area for not having valid travel documents.

************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ***

The Nation – Thai-Burmese border trade down on economic crisis

The Thai-Burmese border trade in Tak province has affected more from global economic problems than political turbulence in Burma, said Chaiyuth Senitantikul, chairman of the Federation of Thai Industries in Tak.

He said political movements in Burma are concentrated in Rangoon and produce less impact on the border trade.

Thailand’s exports – mostly consumer products – in May dropped 10 per cent from the previous month to Bt1.8 billion, while imports were down 10-20 per cent to about Bt200 million.

************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ***

Weblog: Burma Wants Freedom and Democracy – Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Burmese soldiers assaulted and detained youth for preventing rape
Supporting Kachin

Kachin youths assaulted and detained for preventing rape by Burmese soldiers

Many ethnic young Kachin men and male students in Mayan Village near Namti city in Burma’s northern Kachin State were brutally assaulted and detained last night by Burmese soldiers in the village-based Burmese Army Artillery Battalion No. 372. The army action came after some youths prevented a rape of a minor girl by four Burmese Army soldiers.

Following directives from the battalion commander Lt-Col. Ye Yint Twe, who is known to treat villagers cruelly, only ethnic Kachin young men were targeted, said villagers of Mayan.

Lt-Col. Ye Yint Twe ordered his soldiers to “Kill all Kachin young men in the village,” villagers quoted the military officer as saying.

Villagers said over 20 youths have been severely injured. More than three persons have been hospitalized and over 10 young men and village headmen have been put in a prison cell in Namti city which is near the Mayan Village.

Over 30 youths have fled the village since last night for fear of being assaulted and arrested by the soldiers, added villagers.

Teenagers, Middle and High School students, headmen of wards in the village and several Kachin Independence Army (KIA) soldiers, who temporarily returned home, were among the victims, said their parents.

Villagers told KNG today that the mayhem was started yesterday by Burmese soldiers when a young man called Latsai Naw prevented the rape of a girl called Wa Sha Ki on the road in daylight. A knife was held to her throat by four soldiers who attempted to rape her.

Latsai Naw called several young men and they beat up the soldiers after he was assaulted for preventing the rape by the four soldiers, said locals.

Following the incident, the angry battalion commander Lt-Col Ye Yit Twe gathered 30 of his soldiers and they circled the Dai Hkawng video theatre to arrest Kachin youths but some fled, said eyewitnesses.

The soldiers began searching for the youths in the village by entering each house. Every young man in the houses was beaten up by the soldiers, said villagers.

Eyewitnesses said many were rounded up from their homes while some were picked up from the village train station by local Burmese soldiers. They used guns, knives and wooden sticks, added eyewitnesses.

The innocent students, Brang Awng, Labang Naw Ding and Hpuwan La San were severely beaten up in their homes by soldiers and had to be hospitalized in Namti, said family sources. The events started around 7 a.m. and ended at 10 a.m. Burma Standard Time.

Mayan Village is home to over 300 families, mainly Kachins. They have been threatened not to tell the truth by the battalion commander Ye Yint Twe. They have been told to say that the trouble was not between the soldiers and local Kachin youths but among the villagers

Night Curfew has been set from tonight at 7 p.m. by Lt-Col. Ye Ying Twe and whoever breaks the Night Curfew in the village has been threatened to gun down by soldiers, said villagers.

************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ***

ReliefWeb – Working together to make a difference
Source: United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
Date: 01 Jun 2009

May, Labutta – Seven months after Nargis, Daw Myint Yee, 57, and her son began their new life in Yae Wai village, a one-hour boat drive from Labutta Township.

Concurrently, Yee and her 17-year old son also started their new business after buying a boat and fishing net. With this regular income generated from fishing, they are able to meet their basic daily needs till date.

Yee is one of 244 people who have been relocated to Yae Wai village since 1 December 2008. After the cyclone, none of these people had the desire to go back to their native village; they preferred to stay at Kyauk Phyu Hill, about seven miles from Labutta Township.

“Nearly all the people in my village, Kywan Kwin, died during the cyclone. I did not want to go back there as I felt really sad whenever I thought of them. So I decided to restart my life in another place,” Yee said.

Instead of returning to their villages, many families moved from one place to another in search of food, water, shelter and an income after the cyclone. These families did not want to return to their villages for reasons similar to Yee’s. Some families looked for a new place to live because their houses and livelihood assets were completely destroyed by Nargis, while others wanted to move so they were not reminded of their bitter experiences during the storm.

Yee and her fellow villagers moved by their own accord from a relief camp to Kyauk Phyu Hill in the hope of rebuilding their lives.

The resettling of these people, which required extensive coordination, was discussed at a cluster meeting of UN agencies, INGOs and local authorities last November.

As a first effort, UNHCR facilitated a discussion with a number of village Early Recovery Committees (ERC), which were established with the support of UNDP, on whether these villages would allow the new families to settle in their village. Of the villages approached, Yae Wai village offered to share their land and welcomed all the displaced people.

As a next step, UNOCHA, UNHCR and UNDP worked together to move the displaced villagers from Kyauk Phyu Hill to Yae Wai village. WFP provided rice; UNICEF provided household utensils and water and sanitation assistance; and local NGO, Swe Tha Har, provided some livelihood assistance.

UNDP supported grants ranging from US $70 to $100 to assist families in starting up livelihood activities. $120 was also provided to each household to begin construction of their homes in the new location.

“The support was a big help for us, as it allowed us to start a business and earn a living. Until we moved to Yae Wai village and received the grant, we were only able to work as casual laborers for other people. Now we feel safe and happy in our new village community,” Yee said.

“The coordination effort in relocating the 32 households (244 people) was a large success. Based on the successful collaboration efforts we achieved, UNDP and other agencies will continue supporting the resettlement of dislocated households,” said U Htein Soe, UNDP Early Recovery Manager in Labutta.

Learning from this experience, similar voluntary relocation of 1800 persons from two relief camps will be carried out by the end of May 2009.

************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ***

VOA News – UN Calls for Help for Burma’s Cyclone Damaged Farms
By Ron Corben, Bangkok
02 June 2009

The U.N. World Food Program has made an urgent appeal for funds to assist Burmese farmers whose lands were devastated by Cyclone Nargis last year. Many communities in the Irrawaddy Delta may be years away from full recovery.

The World Food Program says international aid is coming too slowly to help farmers plant crops for this season.

The Irrawaddy Delta, known as the rice bowl of Burma, was devastated last May by Cyclone Nargis, which claimed more than 130,000 lives.

The WFP representative in Burma, Chris Kaye, says cash for farmers for the planting season is the key issue for local communities. Many local credit sources dried up after the cyclone.

“The main concern remains the availability of funds, of cash, of credit, in order to enable farmers to purchase the inputs required for the planting season for the monsoon rice crop,” he said.

Kaye says money is only “trickling in” and there is growing concern contributions will fall short or will not arrive in time for the planting season.

International donors have sought guarantees on how aid is used in Burma because of fears the government will siphon money away. A recent U.N. appeal has raised just 60 percent of the money requested.

The WFP request for additional short-term funds came as the agency released a report on the damage Nargis did and the international effort to help survivors.

The storm swept away homes, forestry, assets and livelihoods. The storm surge pushed ocean water far inland, destroying crops and damaging the soil.

Despite efforts by international aid agencies, Kaye says questions remain over whether some areas of the delta will ever fully recover.

“Will the delta ever be the same again? I sense not. The psycho-social care, the psycho-social needs of people are immense and the likes of MSF and UNICEF have concentrated on those as best they can – but I sense, like you, it is inadequate in relation to the overall need,” he said.

But others are less pessimistic. Belete Temesgen, emergency coordinator of World Vision International, says local communities are “very resilient.”

“Of course there are challenges – there is a lot that needs to be done but with the assistance, the planning that we are doing together with these communities I think that the efforts that we are making definitely they will recover but much needs to be done,” he said.

World Vision expects it will take the region four more years to recover.

The cyclone affected more than two million people, and was the deadliest disaster in Asia since the December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, which nearly 200,000 lives.

************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ***

Scotsman – We have talent and Burma has tragedy
Published Date: 02 June 2009
By Andrea Mullaney

NOW this is reality television: watching Dispatches’ horrifying report from Burma, filmed in great secrecy by undercover cameramen risking 30 years in jail, was a blinding reminder of how truly irrelevant nearly everything else that will be shown on television this week is. And yet it will receive a fraction of the coverage and ratings of the Britain’s Got Talent fallout, though the children crying in this film were distressed because of starvation and abandonment, left to cope alone after their families were killed by last year’s Cyclone Nargis.

Well, that’s all very self- righteous and of course the problem is that Orphans Of Burma’s Cyclone was a painful programme to watch. It’s particularly hard to sit through such unhappy scenes when all you want to do is turn away, turn over and not have to think about it – especially when most of the problem is the country’s regime, which is actively trying to stop anyone from outside coming to help.

But the aim of this film was to whip up anger: clearly partisan, it had a charge to put against the military government and the generals who spend half the national budget on the army and refused to let foreign aid agencies in for months. There are allegations that much of it, even now, is siphoned up by corrupt officials.

In one awful scene, banned from the country’s television news, the Prime Minister made a cursory visit to some of the millions displaced by the disaster. “Oh master! Oh master!” they pleaded, in a disturbing translation. “We just need enough to fill our stomachs.” “We just came to check things out. You have to work hard and don’t dwell on the sadness,” he told them, with appalling callousness. Later there were shots of a luxurious banquet at which the generals insisted that everything in their country was rosy. Frankly, it made our own politicians’ venal crimes, annoying as they are, seem like nothing.

The orphans filmed – and let’s hope to God that they are protected from any reprisals after this – were remarkable children, adapting as best they could and working at anything they could get to survive. Whole villages had washed away and most had seen their parents swept away by the waves; skulls and bones still lie around the river’s edge for kids to fish them out, casually, for the cameras.

A brother and sister of ten and six were heart-rendingly now the “parents” of their toddler brother; the boy clutched the baby and crooned to him: “Do you love me? Tell me you love me.” Two other sisters clung to each other desperately. “I don’t know why our lives are full of misery,” said one. “My mum used to sing a song every night before we went to bed …” Now they work ten hours a day pushing a heavy roller across the salt fields and eat the scraps the fishmonger throws out.

Since a third of Burmese children were affected by malnutrition even before the cyclone, their prospects are not great. And those who survive will have a legacy of traumatic memories, like the girl now in a Thai refugee camp who was haunted by the night her family swam for their lives; only she made it.

Yes, this was a hard programme to watch but an important one and great credit must be given to those who put it together, both the Dispatches production team and the people within Burma.

************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ***

The Examiner – The pagoda’s collapse and the Burmese junta
Nelson Ho, San Francisco Buddhism Examiner
June 1, 8:51 PM

At least two people are found dead and a hundred people reported injured on Saturday, May 30th, due to the collapse of Danok pagoda, an ancient Buddhist site in Rangoon, Myanmar. The pagoda had been damaged by the Cyclone Nargis last spring – which took the lives of at least 140,000 Burmese – and was under renovation when the pagoda fell. The leader of the military junta Than Shwe had just recently participated in a ceremony at the holy site.

Some Burmese believe the tragedy to be a bad omen that foreshadows further disasters in their country. Proponents argue that these omens have occurred in history. For example, an insane man destructed the statue of Brahman at the Erawan Shrine in Bangkok March 2006. Later that year in September, a military coupe ousted the corrupt yet popular Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, which leaves a legacy of political turmoil that is still present in Thailand today.

No omens came more disturbing than what happened in China in May 1989, during which millions of peaceful protesters in Beijing and other parts of China asked the Communist Party to fight corruption and to allow freedom of press and speech. On May 23rd 1989, three young men from the Hunan province – the ancestral home of Chairman Mao Zedong – threw paint at his gigantic image hanging outside of the Forbidden City. Dark clouds quickly filled the sky soon after the vandalism occurred, bringing turbulent wind and the unusual summer hail.

The biggest man-made disaster in modern Chinese history soon followed the presage. In order to crack down the demonstration, behind-the-scene dictator Deng Xiaoping and Premier Li Peng ordered the Chinese Liberation Army to respond to the protests on Tianmen Square with hail of bullets. The decision interred more than three thousand innocent people in the city, most of whom were shot dead and crushed by tanks between June 3rd and 4th 1989. The “June 4th Massacre” remains a taboo in China, and its government has blocked any pertaining information from Chinese netizens.

Many Burmese will not find political uproar a surprise. Even without the collapse of the pagoda, many can still see the imminence of insurgencies in Burma. An American man’s decision to sneak into the abode of Aung Saan Su Kyi – the only surviving Nobel Peace Prize winner without the freedom of mobility – has given an excuse for the junta to persecute her. The junta sees this as a golden opportunity to put Su Kyi behind bars as her house arrest order expires.

The Burmese people and analysts have both predicted that Aung Saan Su Kyi will be imprisoned. This possible outcome will likely to spark a series of protests and demonstrations that might result in another “Saffron Revolution”.

During the mean time, the Burmese military is in search of the diamond which Than Shwe had put on the top of the pagoda, while abandoning their fellow citizens’ hearts that are a thousand times more precious. A government that cannot captivate the trust and loyalty of its people is doomed to destruction, and this is only a matter of time. Allowing its people to enjoy freedom and putting a halt to political persecution remains the only pragmatic solution for the junta to get out from the quagmire.

************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ***

Upstreamonline – PTTEP may delay M9 gas to 2015
Tuesday, 02 June, 2009, 03:11 GMT
News services

PTTEP may delay gas deliveries from the Burma M9 gas development to Thailand by another two years to 2015.

Gas delivery from M9 has already been postponed by one year to 2013 as earlier reported on Upstream, but now looks set for further delay on the gas buyer, PTT’s, concern over a slowdown in growth of Thailand’s gas consumption.

“Earlier, we anticipated gas consumption in Thailand would grow by more than 10% a year over five years. But this year, for example, it will be flat as the economy slows,” PTT’s chief operating officer Chitrapongse Kwangsukstith told the Bangkok Post.

The price of M9 gas has been agreed at the same level as that from Burma’s Yadana and Yetagun fields, although gas delivered from Burma through pipelines is normally priced higher than that pumped from the Gulf of Thailand due to transport costs, he said.

PTTEP currently pays an average of $5.83 per million British Thermal Units.

The M9 block has clearly proven high gas reserves, which PTTEP puts at 1.7 trillion cubic feet, Chitrapongse said.

PTTEP, which is 65.5% owned by PTT, was awarded the M9 block concessions in 2003 and began exploration activities in 2005. About 15% of the company’s five-year capital expenditure of 485 billion baht ($14 billion) has been allocated to M9 Block activities.

In 2008 Thailand consumed 3,482 million cubic feet per day of gas, a third of which came from Burma, and 560 billion barrels of oil. Other foreign sources of gas are the Thailand-Malaysia Joint Development Area (JDA) and Indonesia’s Natuna gas field.

************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ***

Mizzima News – Burma ranks 126th in Global Peace Index
by Mungpi
Tuesday, 02 June 2009 21:38

New Delhi (Mizzima) – Increasing militarization and internal conflict has pushed Burma down to 126th place in the new Global Peace Index, which measures the level of peace in countries across the world.

The 2009 Global Peace Index, released on Tuesday, reveals that Burma’s peace has been further reduced by continued militarization, internal armed conflict and human rights violations.

Ranking 126th among the 144 countries included in the Index, Burma also ranks as the 22nd worse country in Asia, ahead of only North Korea, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The Index calculates the level of peace in a country using 23 qualitative and quantitative indicators ranging from a country’s level of military expenditure to its relations with neighboring countries and the level of respect for human rights.

The indicators, selected by an international panel of experts including academics and leaders of peace institutions, shows that in 2008 global peace has been jeopardized by the global recession and an increase in violent conflict and political instability.

In Burma, reports suggest that human rights violations and militarization continued to increase in 2008.

According to the Karen National Union (KNU), an ethnic armed rebel group based along the Thai-Burmese border, its Army had more than 1,000 clashes with the Burmese Army and their allies over the course of the preceding year.

The KNU said the junta, in early 2009, concluded a three-year military campaign against the rebel group, with an aim to eliminate them.

The increasing incidence of armed conflict has produced thousands of internally displaced persons along the Thai-Burmese border, according to the Committee for Internally Displaced Karen People (CIDKP), a group helping internally displaced persons.

Additionally, following deadly Cyclone Nargis in May 2008, the worst recorded natural disaster in Burmese history, human rights violations reportedly reached a new height.

Rights groups and international governments condemned Burma’s ruling junta for blocking aid supplies in the immediate aftermath of the cyclone. And even though the junta later opened up and accepted external help, rights groups said violations, including restrictions on movement within cyclone hit regions, have continued to hamper relief and rehabilitation efforts.

The Index, which is in its third year, defines peace as “the absence of violence” and looks at internal indicators including homicides, percentage of the population in jail, availability of guns and the level of organized crime.

It also looks at external indicators including the size of the military, exports and imports of arms, battlefield deaths, UN peacekeeping contributions and relations with neighboring states.

The study is endorsed by several prominent individuals including Nobel Peace Laureates Martti Ahtisaari – former President of Finland, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, former President Jimmy Carter and Kofi Annan – former Secretary General of the United Nations. It is maintained by the Australia-based Institute for Economics and Peace.

************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ***

The Irrawaddy – Hints of Burma-Thailand Tension Appear in State-run Media
By WAI MOE, Tuesday, June 2, 2009

The Burmese state-run-media hinted on Tuesday of increased tension between the military junta and the current Thai chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) over comments he made about the trial of Aung San Suu Kyi.

Burmese newspapers published a story about the Asean-EU meeting in Phnom Penh on May 27-28 which Burmese deputy foreign minister Maung Myint attended.

The story briefly outlined Thailand’s expression of concern over charges against Suu Kyi at an informal meeting on May 27.

In response, Maung Myint was quoted as saying, “The matter no longer needs to be put on the agenda of the Asean-EU meeting,” contending it had already been discussed during the Hanoi meeting.

Like other Burmese officials, Maung Myint called Suu Kyi’s trial “a matter of internal legal process.”

Burmese newspapers reported that Maung Myint said “some neighboring nations were unreasonably interested in the hearing of the case” at the Asean-EU meeting on May 28.

The deputy minister was quoted as saying at the meeting, “Actually, it is Thailand that needs to forge national reconciliation. Thailand saw year-long demonstrations in which different groups in red, yellow and blue made an attempt to oust the government and jeopardize the Asean Summit.”

Rejecting the reactions of the international community over Suu Kyi’s trial, Maung Myint said the case was not “a political or human rights issue.”

A separate Thailand-Burma story published in Myanma Alin under the headline: “Thailand should not be tension [sic] with Burma, warned Gen Sonthi.”

Quoting a story from Bankok’s Thai Rath newspaper on May 28, Myanma Alin reported on Tuesday that Gen Sonthi Boonyaratglin, the 2006 coup maker who ousted former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, warned that “if Thailand has a conflict with Burma, it will face defeat.”

Sonthi was quoted as saying that Burma has onshore and offshore natural resources and it has resources that can produce nuclear power, according to the report in Myanma Alin.

Sonthi’s remark came just a day after Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya’s was quoted as making a critical comment on Burma in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh.

“The changes in Myanmar are very much needed,” he was quoted as saying on Monday. “It not only is a necessity for the security of Myanmar but also for all the neighboring countries including Bangladesh and Thailand.”

According to Dhaka’s newspapers, Kasit said the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia and Bangladesh went through military regimes “to some extent.”

“All of us have got rid of military authoritative regimes and emerged to have democratic societies,” he said. He suggested that Indonesia was a good model for Burma’s democratization.

“So the question to be posed on Myanmar is why can’t they also emerge from that to an open society? It would be good for the whole region. It would good for all of us,” he said.

Normally, Thailand’s relationship with Burma has been relatively stable since the 1988 military coup in Burma, largely because of Thailand’s “business first policy.” Thailand was the first country to invest in Burma after the brutal Burmese military crackdown on demonstrators. Currently, it is the Burmese regime’s biggest trade partner.

However, there was some tension between the neighboring countries when Thailand was governed by the Democratic Party in the late 1990s. Thailand’s foreign minister attempted to replace Asean’s “constructive engagement” policy on Burma with a more pro-active “flexible engagement” policy.

Currently, the Democratic party again governs in Thailand and is openly making more critical comments about Burma and the trial of Suu Kyi.

Several other Asean members including Asean founders Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore and Malaysia, have made similar critical statements over the trial of Suu Kyi. Cambodia also has expressed a statement of concern.

Most Asean members have supported Thailand’s critical statement on the trial of Suu Kyi and the release of all political prisoners, because they see the issue as a challenge to the new Asean Charter, which has a human rights body.

************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ***

The Irrawaddy – Burmese Legal Experts Criticize Suu Kyi Trial
By ARKAR MOE, Tuesday, June 2, 2009

The absolute control of Burma’s military regime on the country’s judicial system makes the ongoing trial of Aung San Suu Kyi unfree and unfair, according to Burmese legal experts.

Legal experts made their remarks in response to high-ranking junta members who have publicly commented on the trial in recent days.

“If offenders are not [prosecuted] , anarchy will prevail, and there will be breach of peace and security,” Burmese Deputy Defense Minister Maj-Gen Aye Myint told a security conference over the weekend, referring to the pro-democracy leader who is now on trial in Insein Prison in Rangoon.

At the Shangri-La Dialogue, an annual forum of defense ministers, academics, experts and analysts, the deputy minister lashed out at foreign critics of Suu Kyi’s trial last weekend, accusing them of meddling in Burmese affairs and denying the trial was a political or human rights issue.

Aye Myint said that Suu Kyi “committed a cover-up of the truth by her failure to report an illegal immigrant.”

“Thus there was no option but to proceed with legal proceedings, ” he said. “It is the universal legal principle that no one is above the law.”

Aung Thein, a well-known Burmese lawyer and member of the National League for Democracy party, responded, “Accusing Suu Kyi of being an ‘offender’ even before the decision of a judge shows that Burmese military leaders can influence Burmese laws and courts. Moreover, it is clearly a violation of human rights. They showed that they have decided to put Suu Kyi in prison anyway.”

“To be a fair trial, it must be open and offer a chance to defend freely. Suu Kyi’s trial is grossly unfair because the sole defense witness is Kyi Win [no relation to Suu Kyi's lawyer Kyi Win]. It shows clearly that Burmese military leaders influenced the judgment of the case. If the executive body were separated from the judicial body, it could not influence the judicial body,” he said.

Deputy Foreign Minister Maung Myint rebuked his counterparts from Southeast Asia and Europe at a meeting in Cambodia last week, saying the trial was an “internal legal” issue.

“It’s not political. It’s not a human rights issue, so we don’t accept the pressure and interference from abroad,” said Maung Myint.

Thein Oo, the chairman of the Burma Lawyers’ Council (BLC) in exile, told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday, “Suu Kyi’s trial shows that there is no freedom of judgment in Burma, and the Burmese military dominates the courts. It is a characteristic of dictatorships. Aung San Suu Kyi did not get a fair defense, and the trial is closed.”

Kyi Win, the legal expert and member of Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party, argued there was no legal basis to the charge that Suu Kyi had violated the terms of her house arrest when an American citizen secretly swam to her home.

Suu Kyi has entered a not guilty plea.

She said last week that the charges against her were “one-sided.” Her lawyers insist it was the duty of government security guards outside her closely watched compound to prevent any intrusions.

The brisk trial has drawn outrage from the international community and Suu Kyi supporters, who worry that the military junta has found a way to keep her detained through next year’s elections and beyond.

Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace laureate, could be sentenced to prison for five years.

According to the Associated Press, lawyers for pro-democracy leader Suu Kyi said that they had earlier asked the court to allow three defense witnesses. The judge approved one defense witness.

A lawyer for Suu Kyi, Nyan Win, said the defense team would submit an appeal on Tuesday at a division court in Rangoon.

No more testimony is expected in the closed trial until Friday. A guilty verdict is widely expected as Burmese courts have a track record of passing tough sentences on dissidents, often in secret trials.

************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ***

DVB News – Police warn locals to stay silent about pagoda victims

June 2, 2009 (DVB)-Burmese government troops in Rangoon’s Dala township deployed to maintain security after a ancient pagoda collapsed on Saturday have warned locals not to talk about victims of the accident.

The 2,300-year-old Danok pagoda mysteriously collapsed whilst construction workers were carrying out renovation work, with various sourcing estimating up to 20 deaths. It stands at over 50 metres and is said to hold two Buddha relics.

A local in Dala, south-west of Rangoon, said police and military security was tight around the pagoda following its collapse.

“There are about 60 to 70 soldiers in the pagoda’s premises and they are telling people to say no one was killed or hurt when someone asks,” he said under condition of anonymity.

“About fifty people are still trapped underneath the debris.”

Most of the people trapped are navy soldiers who were volunteering in the renovation.

Locals said the army was using bulldozers to clear the debris yesterday while family members of the missing awaited news about their relatives.

Reporting by Khin Hnin Htet

************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ***

DVB News – Forced labour victim denied medical care

June 2, 2009 (DVB)-A woman who broke her collar bone whilst being forced by Burmese authorities to work on the construction of a road in Irrawaddy division has said she has received no medical attention for her injuries.

Reports of forced labour in infrastructural development projects in Burma are common.

A resident in Irrawaddy’s Ingapu township said that township authorities had ordered the expansion of a two mile-long road between Thegone and Thargaung villages on 21 May. Both men and women were forced to work on the project.

Three women from Thegone village were hurt when a bullock cart flipped over, with one sustaining a broken collar-bone and the other two receiving facial injuries.

“One of the women named Daw Ma Kyi broke her collar bone but the village authorities refused to take her to a hospital in nearby town of Kwin Kaut,” said the Ingapu resident.

“So she instead went to a shaman in Kyaynapyan village.”

One of the villagers told DVB that the locals, although aware that they could report the forced labour incident to the UN International Labour Organisation (ILO), were unable to do so because they were afraid they would get punished.

“We know we can report to the ILO about this but no one has guts to do so,” he said.

“We are afraid of our village authorities as they showed us examples in the past.”

Complainants of forced labour are often intimidated, with some even imprisoned after authorities learnt of the complaints.

The ILO office in Rangoon maintains that they have an agreement with the Burmese government that complainants will not be persecuted, although acknowledge that it is an ongoing problem.

Ingapu’s township Peace and Development Council office was unavailable for comments.

In a separate incident, villagers in Mongyang township in Shan state were last week reportedly forced by authorities repay the cost of a visit by Burmese prime minister, Thein Sein.

Authorities claimed the cost of the visit could not be fully subsidised by the township council, although villagers doubted this.

“The cost could not have been much,” a village headman told the Shan Herald Agency for News.

“The visitors just stayed for about an hour and they only had coffee and juice. It’s just another way to fill up his pocket.”

Reporting by Naw Say Phaw

************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ***