News & Articles on Burma, Tuesday, 23 June 2009
Jun 23rd, 2009
Burmese junta expel officials over tunnel photos
Burma to host ASEAN talks on transnational crime
Burma ranked ‘critical’ on Failed States Index
Myanmar’s Suu Kyi says thanks for birthday wishes
Suu Kyi passes on a message of thanks
Closely watched North Korean ship still off China coast
Official: N. Korean Ship Carrying Arms to Burma
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Burmese junta expel officials over tunnel photos
By The Nation
Several senior military Burmese officials have been dismissed over the weeks followed the recent publication of photographs of secret tunnels built by North Korean experts between 2003-2006 inside Burma, according informed sources.
The sources, who asked not to be identified because the information they gave could endanger their lives, said that the Burmese intelligence officials have begun massive investigations to identify the sources of leakages.
They have combed the city of Rangoon and interviewed associates of former intelligence chief, Lt Gen Khin Nyunt to search for persons who might leak one of the most secretive programs.
They have already arrested several suspects including journalists who might have accessed to these sensitive photos and documents.
Swedish journalist, Bertil Litner, detailed Pyongyang’s effort in helping Rangoon to build underground bunkers in various locations.
The author said the photographs, which were obtained by Democratic Voice of Burma, showed an extensive network of underground installations that was built near Burma’s new, fortified new capital Naypyidaw, 450 kilometers north of Rangoon.
The photographs which first appeared in Yale Global Online on 8 June 2009 have puzzled Bangkok-based diplomatic community.
“We are interested in the news and we are following it closely,” said a senior diplomat from an Asean country, who asked not be identified.
A Thai intelligence source yesterday confirmed that existence of the tunnel but does not express any serious concern.
“The Burmese generals fear outside attacks, so they are building these underground hidden places,” he said. Thailand is also watching closely about Burma’s effort to increase its nuclear capacity.
These tunnels are equipped with underground facilities including communications and strategic rooms, which would enable the Burmese leaders to survive any attack from their peoples and the outside world. Some tunnels are big enough for military and transport vehicles to go through.
Sources also revealed that dozens of tunnels are also dug near Thai-Burma border. They said the construction of these tunnels were disguised as part of the country’s plan to lay optic fibers throughout the country
Bertil wrote that well-hidden complex ensures there is no danger of angry civilians storming government buildings as they did during the massive pro-democracy uprising in August-September 1988. It could also serve as their deep bunkers in case there are air strikes of the kind that the Taliban faced in Afghanistan.
According to the author, it is not clear how North Korean experts got paid. The payment could be in the form of food or god, which Burma has. The country is rich in mineral and agricultural product.
Tunnels, Guns and Kimchi: North Korea’s Quest for Dollars : Yale Global Online
http://www.nationmultimedia.
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Burma to host ASEAN talks on transnational crime
June 23, 2009 (DVB)–Burma’s jungle capital of Naypyidaw has been chosen to host this year’s ASEAN meeting on transnational crime, with Chinese, EU and UN delegates lined up to attend, according to Burma’s Weekly Eleven journal.
Senior officials of the Association of the Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) had originally earmarked late June for ninth annual meeting, although Weekly Eleven now say it will take place from 1 to 3 July.
Two of the topics likely to be discussed will be human trafficking and Asia’s illicit drug’s trade, both of which are a sensitive issues in Burma.
A report released by the US state department earlier this month said that human trafficking within Burma’s remains “significant”, despite Burma in April signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Thailand aimed at stemming the flow of trafficking between the two countries.
This is in addition to Burma being party to the UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime and the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children.
The US report also labelled Burma as “a destination country for child sex tourism” and stated that Burma has not “adequately addressed” trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation and labour exploitation within the country.
Similarly, Burma is listed by the CIA as being the world’s second largest producer of opium, behind Afghanistan.
Government-allied armed groups, particular the United Wa State Army, are seen to be key players in the industry.
In May last year Burma’s representative Deputy Chief of Myanmar Police Force, General Zaw Win, attended the ASEAN Chiefs of Police joint communiqué held in Brunei Darussalam, where countries discussed measures to tackle issues such as human and drug trafficking.
Many Burmese women and children are trafficked to neighbouring countries such as Thailand, China and Malaysia, often for forced marriage arrangements.
Within Burma, trafficking of girls for the purpose of prostitution “persisted as a major problem”, said the US report.
Reporting by Rosalie Smith http://english.dvb.no/news.
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Burma ranked ‘critical’ on Failed States Index
June 23, 2009 (DVB)–Weighed down by state corruption, economic decline and vastly uneven development, Burma has ranked at the tail-end of this year’s Failed States Index, published by US-based Foreign Policy magazine.
The current economic recession has sparked conflict and instability across the world, and has pulled many struggling countries further toward the brink of collapse.
In Burma, however, the majority of responsibility for near economic breakdown and endemic human rights abuses lies with the military government, says Foreign Policy’s Failed States Index, which ranked Burma 164 out of 177 countries.
Like Zimbabwe, the report says, Burma is failing because its government is “strong enough to choke the life out of [its society]”.
The Southeast Asian pariah state ranked below North Korea, Ethiopia and East Timor overall, and only above Somalia and Sudan in terms of even development.
Burma is one of the world’s most isolated states, and is under tough United States and European Union sanctions, which have contributed in part towards the country’s economic decline, although state corruption is widely perceived as the key catalyst for this.
Burmese political analyst Aung Thu Nyein said that the results were not surprising.
“It reflects the reality of the current situation in Burma, where the economy is in a bad state and there major political problems,” he said.
“The government is not providing public services. The main problem for me is the military rule – it’s not surprising that there is a failed state when the army is in power.”
Corruption is also a major problem, he said, and it “affects every sector of society”.
The index used 12 political, economic and social indicators, including external intervention and presence of public services, to measure whether a country qualifies as a ‘failed state’.
Burma was ranked as one of 14 countries deemed to be in a “critical” state, with Somalia heading the list, followed by Zimbabwe and Sudan.
Reporting by Francis Wade http://english.dvb.no/news.
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Myanmar’s Suu Kyi says thanks for birthday wishes
6/22/2009, 12:30 p.m. EDT
The Associated Press
(AP) — YANGON, Myanmar – Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi thanked supporters around the world who sent her greetings for her 64th birthday last week while she remained in prison.
A spokesman for her political party, Nyan Win, said Monday the Nobel Peace laureate regretted she could not thank everyone individually. He said the well-wishers whose messages he delivered to her included British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the Japanese and Australian governments, France’s foreign minister, and a U.S. senator.
Suu Kyi is being held in Yangon’s Insein Prison while being tried for violating the terms of her house arrest when an uninvited American man swam secretly to her closely guarded lakeside home last month and stayed two days. If convicted, she faces up to five years in prison.
Lawyers met Suu Kyi and two of her companions at the prison Monday for two hours, Nyan Win said, and made preparations for their closing arguments, for which no date has yet been set.
Nyan Win said he delivered 50 packets of Indian-style Biriyani rice, chocolate cake and three bouquets of flowers to the prison for Suu Kyi’s birthday last Friday but was not allowed to see her.
“She is very well,” he said. “A doctor takes care of her health.” Suu Kyi had been suffering from dehydration and low blood pressure just before being charged last month.
She treated her guards and the prison doctor to some of the food, he said.
Suu Kyi’s trial has drawn outrage from the international community and local supporters who say the military government is using the affair as an excuse to keep her detained through elections scheduled for next year.
She has spent more than 13 of the past 19 years in detention without trial, mostly under house arrest.
http://www.silive.com/
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Suu Kyi passes on a message of thanks
June 23, 2009 (DVB)–Burma’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has expressed her regret that she cannot personally thank those who marked her birthday on Friday, according to lawyers who met with Suu Kyi yesterday.
The National League for Democracy leader was allowed to meet with her four legal representatives yesterday afternoon at her unit inside Insein prison.
According to lawyer Nyan Win, they discussed the legal tools available in her ongoing trial, the next hearing of which is scheduled for 26 June.
“One thing I can say now is, she said thank you to all those who wish her happy birthday, home and abroad,” he said, adding that she stressed to her well-wishers to “please understand that I can’t thank you individually now”.
To mark her birthday she had ordered 50 packets of Biryani rice, chocolate cake and flowers to be distributed to fellow staff and inmates, and was able to carry this out, said Nyan Win.
Tomorrow lawyers of Suu Kyi will argue for the inclusion of two witnesses, Tin Oo and Win Tin. Both were disqualified by judges in May, but the court has accepted an appeal to reconsider their admittance.
A third witness, Khin Mo Mo, a supreme court lawyer from Shan state’s Taunggyi, who was initially disqualified but later readmitted will find out on 26 June the date she will be appearing as a witness.
Suu Kyi reportedly reiterated yesterday her frustration at the lack of legal transparency in Burma.
“It is very important that there is the rule of law here; it has been very weak,” Nyan Win quoted her as saying.
“The rule of law is the most important thing.”
Reporting by Naw Say Phaw http://english.dvb.no/news.
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Tuesday, June 23, 2009 5:10 PM
Closely watched North Korean ship still off China coast
The Associated Press , Seoul | Tue, 06/23/2009 3:16 PM | World
A North Korean ship suspected of carrying illicit weapons was plying the waters off Shanghai on Tuesday en route to Myanmar, a news report said, as regional military officials and a U.S. destroyer kept a close eye on the vessel’s movements.
Washington’s top military commander in South Korea, meanwhile, warned that the communist regime is bolstering its guerrilla warfare capacity.
Gen. Walter Sharp, who commands the 28,500 U.S. troops positioned in South Korea, said the North could employ roadside bombs and other guerrilla tactics if war breaks out again on the Korean peninsula. The two Koreas technically remain at war because their three-year conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, in 1953.
North Korea’s 1.2 million-member army makes it one of the world’s largest. Some 180,000 are special operation forces. North Korea is believed to have been boosting its urban, nighttime and special operation capabilities in the wake of the U.S.-led war in Iraq, South Korea’s Defense Ministry said.
Tensions have been high in the wake of North Korea’s defiant underground nuclear test May 25 in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.
A new resolution was passed June 12 in a bid to stop North Korea from developing its nuclear and missile programs and selling its technology.
Last Wednesday, a North Korean-flagged vessel left the port of Nampo and was being trailed by a U.S. destroyer, a U.S. official said, making it the first ship monitored under the new U.N. sanctions.
The Kang Nam, accused of transporting illicit goods in the past, is believed to be carrying banned small arms to Myanmar, a South Korean intelligence official said Monday, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the information.
However, analysts say a high seas interception – something North Korea has said it would consider an act of war – is unlikely.
The resolution calls on U.N. member states to inspect North Korean vessels if they have “reasonable grounds” to believe that its cargo contains banned weapons or materials. But it must first get the consent of the nation whose flag the ship is flying – in this case, North Korea.
North Korea, however, is unlikely to allow any inspection of its cargo, making interception unlikely, said Hong Hyun-ik, an analyst at the Sejong Institute think tank outside Seoul.
If North Korea refuses, authorities must direct the vessel to a port. U.N. members have been ordered not to provided suspected ships with services such as fuel.
Singapore, the world’s busiest port and a top refueling center, said officials would “act appropriately” if asked to confront a North Korean ship believed to be carrying banned cargo.
“Singapore takes seriously the proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD), their means of delivery and related materials,” a spokesman for the Foreign Affairs Ministry said Tuesday on condition of anonymity according to ministry policy. “If the allegation is true, Singapore will act appropriately.”
The South Korean broadcaster YTN said the ship was traveling in waters 200 nautical miles (230 miles; 370 kilometers) southeast of Shanghai at a speed of about 10 knots, or 10 nautical miles, (11.5 miles; 18.5 kilometers) per hour.
The Kang Nam is expected to dock at Myanmar’s Thilawa port, some 20 miles (30 kilometers) south of Yangon, in the next few days, according to the Irrawaddy, an online magazine operated by independent exiled journalists from Myanmar.
The magazine cited an unidentified port official as saying North Korean ships have docked there in the past. The magazine’s in-depth coverage of Myanmar is generally reliable.
North Korea is believed to have sold guns, artillery and other small weapons to Myanmar, said Kim Jin-moo, an analyst at Seoul’s state-run Korea Institute for Defense Analyses.
A senior U.S. military official told The Associated Press last week that a Navy ship, the USS John S. McCain, is relatively close to the North Korean vessel but had no orders to intercept it. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
U.S. and Japanese military officials said they could not provide details about the whereabouts of either ship.
An armed skirmish is unlikely, analysts said, though the North Korean crew was likely armed with rifles.
“It’s still a cargo ship. A cargo ship can’t confront a warship,” said Baek Seung-joo of the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/
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Official: N. Korean Ship Carrying Arms to Burma
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
AP
SEOUL, South Korea — A North Korean ship suspected of carrying illicit weapons was plying the waters off Shanghai on Tuesday en route to Burma, a news report said, as regional military officials and a U.S. destroyer kept a close eye on the vessel’s movements.
The Kang Nam, accused of transporting illicit goods in the past, is believed to be carrying banned small arms to Burma, a South Korean intelligence official said Monday, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the information.
Washington’s top military commander in South Korea, meanwhile, warned that the communist regime is bolstering its guerrilla warfare capacity.
Gen. Walter Sharp, who commands the 28,500 U.S. troops positioned in South Korea, said the North could employ roadside bombs and other guerrilla tactics if war breaks out again on the Korean peninsula. The two Koreas technically remain at war because their three-year conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, in 1953.
North Korea’s 1.2 million-member army makes it one of the world’s largest. Some 180,000 are special operation forces. North Korea is believed to have been boosting its urban, nighttime and special operation capabilities in the wake of the U.S.-led war in Iraq, South Korea’s Defense Ministry said.
Tensions have been high in the wake of North Korea’s defiant underground nuclear test May 25 in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.
A new resolution was passed June 12 in a bid to stop North Korea from developing its nuclear and missile programs and selling its technology.
Last Wednesday, a North Korean-flagged vessel left the port of Nampo and was being trailed by a U.S. destroyer, a U.S. official said, making it the first ship monitored under the new U.N. sanctions.
However, analysts say a high seas interception — something North Korea has said it would consider an act of war — is unlikely.
The resolution calls on U.N. member states to inspect North Korean vessels if they have “reasonable grounds” to believe that its cargo contains banned weapons or materials. But it must first get the consent of the nation whose flag the ship is flying — in this case, North Korea.
North Korea, however, is unlikely to allow any inspection of its cargo, making interception unlikely, said Hong Hyun-ik, an analyst at the Sejong Institute think tank outside Seoul.
If North Korea refuses, authorities must direct the vessel to a port. U.N. members have been ordered not to provided suspected ships with services such as fuel.
Singapore, the world’s busiest port and a top refueling center, said officials would “act appropriately” if asked to confront a North Korean ship believed to be carrying banned cargo.
“Singapore takes seriously the proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD), their means of delivery and related materials,” a spokesman for the Foreign Affairs Ministry said Tuesday on condition of anonymity according to ministry policy. “If the allegation is true, Singapore will act appropriately.”
The South Korean broadcaster YTN said the ship was traveling in waters 200 nautical miles southeast of Shanghai at a speed of about 10 knots, or 10 nautical miles per hour.
The Kang Nam is expected to dock at Burma’s Thilawa port, some 20 miles (30 kilometers) south of Yangon, in the next few days, according to the Irrawaddy, an online magazine operated by independent exiled journalists from Burma.
The magazine cited an unidentified port official as saying North Korean ships have docked there in the past. The magazine’s in-depth coverage of Burma is generally reliable.
North Korea is believed to have sold guns, artillery and other small weapons to Burma, said Kim Jin-moo, an analyst at Seoul’s state-run Korea Institute for Defense Analyses.
A senior U.S. military official told The Associated Press last week that a Navy ship, the USS John S. McCain, is relatively close to the North Korean vessel but had no orders to intercept it. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
U.S. and Japanese military officials said they could not provide details about the whereabouts of either ship.
An armed skirmish is unlikely, analysts said, though the North Korean crew was likely armed with rifles.
“It’s still a cargo ship. A cargo ship can’t confront a warship,” said Baek Seung-joo of the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/
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