AP – Opposition welcomes UN envoy’s arrival in MyanmarAP – Officials say UN envoy arrives in Myanmar
AP – US will not use force to inspect NKorean ship
Reuters – U.N. envoy arrives in Myanmar to discuss Ban visit
The Sydney Morning Herald – UN envoy presses Burma on freedoms
Bernama – Opium cultivation increase in Laos, Myanmar
NASDAQ – Myanmar Opium Poppy Crop Rises Slightly In 2008 – Minister
IRIN News – MYANMAR: Disabled battle stigma, lack of funds
Time Magazine – Why Burma May Be North Korea’s Best Friend
The New York Times – Don’t Moon Over Burma
ASIAONE – Sanctions unhelpful in Myanmar issue: Thai PM
Bangkok Post – Opinion: Gambari to prepare way for UN chief’s visit
Bangkok Post – UN should help govt push Burmese reconciliation
CSM - Burma (Myanmar) presses rebels in bid to eliminate armed opposition
The Guardian Weekly – Inside Burma: ‘They can’t tell what’s true anymore’
Mizzima News – Court adjourns Suu Kyi’s trial to July 3
Mizzima News – Ashin Gambira’s prison term reduced by five years
The Irrawaddy – Tunnel Construction Pictures Spark Questions
The Irrawaddy – Commentary: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back
DVB News – ‘Lawyers of the government’ steering Suu Kyi trial
DVB News – Thai education reform to benefit Burmese migrants
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Opposition welcomes UN envoy’s arrival in Myanmar
Fri Jun 26, 8:23 am ET

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – Myanmar’s opposition welcomed the arrival Friday of a U.N. special envoy whose visit to the military-ruled country comes during the trial of their leader, pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.

The Nobel Peace laureate is in prison and being tried on charges of violating the terms of her house arrest after an uninvited American man swam to her closely guarded lakeside home last month and stayed two days.

Details of the visit by envoy Ibrahim Gambari, who arrived Friday, have not been disclosed by the U.N., but some officials in Myanmar’s diplomatic community spoke openly about it.

“My understanding is that Dr. Gambari is here to assess the conditions for a potential visit by the secretary-general,” said British Ambassador Mark Canning.

Human Rights Watch and some governments have urged U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon not to visit now, arguing the trip could be exploited by the military government, which might portray it as an endorsement of the legitimacy of Suu Kyi’s trial.

But Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party supports the trip, and other countries say the alternative is to do nothing and miss an opportunity to have the U.N. chief press for Suu Kyi’s release and push for more open and inclusive elections next year.

Suu Kyi’s party said it hoped the visiting U.N. envoy will meet the opposition party as he has on previous visits.

“We always support and welcome visits by the U.N. secretary-general as well as any U.N. envoy. We also hope that the U.N. might be able to carry out their … mission more efficiently and effectively,” party spokesman Nyan Win said without elaborating.

It was unclear Friday whether Gambari would visit Suu Kyi.

After arriving in Yangon, the commercial capital, Gambari was driven in a motorcade for a four-hour trip to the capital of Naypyitaw to meet government officials, an official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release information to the press.

It was Gambari’s eighth visit since 2006 when he was appointed the U.N. chief’s special representative to promote political reconciliation here. The envoy has met with both junta leaders and Suu Kyi but failed to nudge the military regime toward talks with the pro-democracy movement.

U.N. spokeswoman Michele Montas said Thursday in New York that Gambari will report to the secretary-general on his Myanmar visit before Ban leaves for a trip to Japan on Monday.

The U.N. has called repeatedly for political reconciliation in Myanmar, including the release of Suu Kyi. The country has been under military rule since 1962, and the junta refused to recognize the results of 1990 general elections won by Suu Kyi’s party.

Suu Kyi’s trial has drawn outrage from the international community and from her local supporters, who say the military government is using the incident as an excuse to keep her detained through the 2010 elections.

The trial has been delayed to allow appeals by Suu Kyi’s lawyers to reinstate two key witnesses.

The District Court presiding over the trial at Myanmar’s Insein Prison, where Suu Kyi is being held, told lawyers Friday the trial would resume July 3, said Nyan Win, who is a defense lawyer for Suu Kyi as well as a spokesman for her party.

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Officials say UN envoy arrives in Myanmar
Fri Jun 26, 12:19 am ET

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – A U.N. special envoy arrived Friday in Myanmar to pave the way for a possible visit by the U.N. secretary-general that would be politically delicate because of the continuing trial of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Human Rights Watch and some governments have urged U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon not to visit now, arguing the trip could be exploited by the government. The Nobel Peace laureate is in prison and being tried on charges of violating the terms of her house arrest after an uninvited American man swam to her closely guarded lakeside home last month and stayed two days.

But other countries say the alternative is to do nothing and miss an opportunity to have the U.N. chief press for Suu Kyi’s release and push for more open and inclusive elections next year.

Details of Ibrahim Gambari’s visit have not been disclosed. After arriving in Yangon, the commercial capital, he was driven to his hotel ahead of a trip later in the day to the capital of Naypyitaw to meet government officials, an official said on condition of anonymity.

A Western diplomat said Gambari would “prepare the visit of his boss.”

Both men spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to release information to the press.

It is Gambari’s eighth visit the U.N. chief’s special representative to promote political reconciliation between the military government and the pro-democracy movement led by Suu Kyi.

U.N. spokeswoman Michele Montas said Thursday in New York that Gambari will report to the secretary-general on his Myanmar visit before Ban leaves for a trip to Japan on Monday.

Ban told The Associated Press earlier this week that he was looking at the “appropriate timing” for a visit.

Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party said it would welcome a meeting with Gambari. “I believe his visit will help ease the current political situation in the country,” party spokesman Nyan Win said.

Another awkward factor is the possible delivery to Myanmar of weapons aboard a ship from North Korea, in defiance of U.N. sanctions. Although neither North Korean nor Myanmar authorities have confirmed such activity, U.S. and South Korean officials suspect that the Kang Nam is carrying weapons for Myanmar’s military, and its arrival could coincide with Ban’s visit.

The U.N. has called repeatedly for political reconciliation in Myanmar, including the release of Suu Kyi. The country has been under military rule since 1962, and the junta refused to recognize the results of 1990 general elections won by Suu Kyi’s party.

Suu Kyi’s trial has drawn outrage from the international community and from her local supporters, who say the military government is using the incident as an excuse to keep her detained through the 2010 elections.

Gambari’s seven trips since becoming the special envoy in 2006 have failed to nudge the military regime toward talks with the opposition.

But Ban’s visit to Myanmar after last year’s devastating Cyclone Nargis was hailed as instrumental to getting the isolated government to admit more foreign relief workers.

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US will not use force to inspect NKorean ship
By KWANG-TAE KIM – 2 hours ago

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The United States will not use force to inspect a North Korean ship suspected of carrying banned goods, an American official was quoted as saying Friday.

An American destroyer has been shadowing the North Korean freighter sailing off China’s coast, possibly on its way to Myanmar.

Defense Undersecretary Michele Flournoy met with South Korean officials in Seoul on Friday as the U.S. sought international support for aggressively enforcing a U.N. sanctions resolution aimed at punishing Pyongyang for its second nuclear test last month. The North Korean-flagged ship, Kang Nam 1, is the first to be tracked under the U.N. resolution.

North Korea has in response escalated threats of war, with a slew of harsh rhetoric including warnings that it would unleash a “fire shower of nuclear retaliation” and “wipe out the (U.S.) aggressors” in the event of a conflict.

On Thursday, the communist regime organized a massive anti-American rally in Pyongyang where some 100,000 participants vowed to “crush” the U.S. One senior speaker told the crowd that the North will respond to any sanctions or U.S. provocations with “an annihilating blow.”

That was seen as a pointed threat in response to the American destroyer.

Flournoy said Friday that Washington has ruled the use military force to inspect the North Korean freighter.

“The U.N. resolution lays out a regime that has a very clear set of steps,” Flournoy said, according to the Yonhap news agency. “I want to be very clear … This is not a resolution that sponsors, that authorizes use of force for interdiction.”

Flournoy said the U.S. still has “incentives and disincentives that will get North Korea to change course.”

“Everything remains on the table, but we’re focused on implementing the resolution fully, responsibly and with our international partners,” she said.

Flournoy’s trip came as the U.S. sought international support for aggressively enforcing the U.N. sanctions.

It is not clear what was on board the North Korean freighter, but officials have mentioned artillery and other conventional weaponry. One intelligence expert suspected missiles.

The U.S. and its allies have made no decision on whether to request inspection of the ship, Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said Wednesday in Washington, but North Korea has said it would consider any interception an act of war.

If permission for inspection is refused, the ship must dock at a port of its choosing, so local authorities can check its cargo. Vessels suspected of carrying banned goods must not be offered bunkering services at port, such as fuel, the resolution says.

A senior U.S. defense official said the ship had cleared the Taiwan Strait. He said he didn’t know whether or when the Kang Nam may need to stop in some port to refuel, but that the ship has in the past stopped in Hong Kong’s port.

Another U.S. defense official said he tended to doubt reports that the Kang Nam was carrying nuclear-related equipment, saying information seems to indicate the cargo is banned conventional munitions. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity in order to talk about intelligence.

North Korea is suspected to have transported banned goods to Myanmar before on the Kang Nam, said Bertil Lintner, a Bangkok-based North Korea expert who has written a book about leader Kim Jong Il.

South Korea, meanwhile, plans to use high-tech surveillance and weapons systems to counter North Korea’s missile and nuclear programs, Defense Minister Lee Sang-hee said in a Friday briefing.

South Korea plans to employ unmanned reconnaissance planes and add “bunker-buster” bombs to its arsenal in case of signs that the North planned to launch an attack toward the South, Lee said.

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U.N. envoy arrives in Myanmar to discuss Ban visit
Fri Jun 26, 2009 8:32am BST
By Aung Hla Tun

YANGON (Reuters) – United Nations special envoy Ibrahim Gambari arrived in military-ruled Myanmar Friday to explore the possibility of a visit next month by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Gambari, making his eighth visit to the former Burma, left Yangon by car to travel 240 miles (385 km) to the country’s new capital Naypyidaw, a diplomat said.

The Nigerian was expected to meet Foreign Minister Nyan Win. It was not known if Gambari would see opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who is on trial in Yangon for breaching terms of her house arrest by allowing an American intruder to stay at her home last month.

“Gambari will meet with the foreign minister later this afternoon about the possibility of the visit of Ban Ki-moon,” the diplomat told Reuters.

“He’s spending tonight in Naypyidaw but we don’t know his further plans yet. We’re not sure whether he will get a chance to see Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.”

Suu Kyi’s trial, which sparked anger around the world, was adjourned Friday until July 3, when the court will hear the testimony of legal expert Khin Moe Moe, her lawyer Nyan Win said.

A higher court is yet to rule on an appeal against bans on two of Suu Kyi’s other defence witnesses, senior National League for Democracy (NLD) member Win Tin and the party’s detained vice-chairman, Tin Oo.

Critics have dismissed the case as a “show trial” aimed at keeping Suu Kyi out of planned multi-party elections next year.

She faces three to five years in prison if found guilty of violating a security law protecting the state from “subversive elements.”

Nyan Win said Suu Kyi was in good health but knew nothing of Gambari’s trip.

“She had not known about the visit of Gambari until we told her,” he told reporters.

Western diplomats at the United Nations said last week the junta had invited Ban, who has expressed a desire to meet the generals to press for democratic reform and the release of Suu Kyi and other political prisoners.

However, the diplomats, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Ban was concerned the regime would use the visit for propaganda purposes to try to legitimise Suu Kyi’s trial.

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The Sydney Morning Herald – UN envoy presses Burma on freedoms
June 27, 2009

THE United Nations special envoy, Ibrahim Gambari, arrived in Burma on Friday to prepare for a visit by the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, against the backdrop of the ongoing trial of the democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

On a two-day trip, Mr Gambari is set to meet senior figures from the ruling junta but there were no immediate plans to see Ms Suu Kyi or members of her political party, Burmese officials said.

Mr Gambari arrived in the main city of Rangoon on a commercial flight and was immediately driven to his hotel in a UN vehicle. He made no comment about his visit, witnesses said.

He was due to fly to the junta’s administrative capital of Naypyidaw for talks and would return to Rangoon on Saturday to meet officials from the Foreign Ministry, officials said.

Gambari is to brief the UN chief on the outcome of his mission and Ban will then decide whether to visit Burma early next month, according to UN sources in New York.

The UN chief and Gambari have tried to persuade Burma’s ruling generals to free all political detainees, including Ms Suu Kyi, and to steer their country to democracy and national reconciliation.

Ms Suu Kyi, 64, is in jail on charges of violating her house arrest after an American man, John Yettaw, swam to her lakeside house earlier this year. She faces up to five years in jail if convicted.

She has spent 13 of the past 19 years in detention since the ruling generals refused to recognise the landslide victory of her National League for Democracy in 1990 elections.
Her party spokesman and lawyer, Nyan Win, said her trial would continue at Insein prison on Friday.

He did not know whether Mr Gambari would meet her, as he had done on his previous visit. “We haven’t got any information yet,” he said.

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Opium cultivation increase in Laos, Myanmar
By D. Arul Rajoo Bernama – Saturday, June 27

BANGKOK, June 26 (Bernama) — There has been a slight but worrying increase in opium cultivation in Laos and Myanmar, while production and use of synthetic drugs is feared to be on the rise in South-East Asia, said the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (Unodc).

Unodc Representative for East Asia and the Pacific Gary Lewis said the opium increase was largely due to the decrease in prices of alternative crops such as coffee, rubber and tea.

“We are worried as the opium cultivation and production were on the decline globally but showing increase in the region. We are talking people on the transition…moving from opium to cash crop but facing difficulties when the crop prices fell,” he said at the launch of the World Drug Report 2009 at Cafe Doi Tung here.

The Doi Tung Development Project supports farmers from the Golden Triangle who have agreed to switch their crop cultivation from opium poppy to coffee beans.

The revenues from the sale of the Doi Tung coffee contribute to the creation of alternative livelihoods for former opium farmers.

Lewis said there was an overall decline in opium cultivation around the world – principally as a result of a 19 percent decrease in Afghanistan, where 93 percent of the world’s opium was grown.

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Jun 26, 2009 | 1:00PM
NASDAQ – Myanmar Opium Poppy Crop Rises Slightly In 2008 – Minister

YANGON (AFP)–Military-ruled Myanmar’s opium poppy cultivation rose by 3% year-on-year in 2008, but produced far lower yields of the illicit drug overall, the home affairs minister said Friday.

At a ceremony to mark the U.N.’s anti-drug day, the ruling junta announced that 28,500 hectares of poppies were grown last year, compared to 27,700 hectares in 2007, but production of opium had declined by 11%.

Opium production had fallen to 410 tons last year, from 460 tons in 2007, home affairs minister Maj. Gen. Maung Oo said at a ceremony in the administrative capital city of Naypyidaw.

“Myanmar has been actively cooperating with the international community and at the same time has been implementing anti-drug campaigns with added momentum, based on its own strength and resources,” Maung Oo said.

The Southeast Asian nation remains the world’s second-largest opium producer after Afghanistan.

Myanmar’s junta has vowed to make the country drug-free by 2014, by following a 15-year elimination plan drawn up in 1999.

There has been a large drop in opium cultivation in the country since then, but poverty and the global financial crisis have caused many farmers to return to the trade.

The U.S. says Myanmar has also become a hub for amphetamine production, which Maung Oo said the government was also tackling.

However, in March Myanmar’s foreign ministry accused the U.S. of giving ” inaccurate and politically motivated assessments” in its February global narcotics report, which said there had been a significant increase in opium poppy cultivation.

Maung Oo said the number of drug users had declined to 52,687 people in January 2009 from 61,455 in 2005.

Myanmar has been ruled by the military since 1962.

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Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN)

MYANMAR: Disabled battle stigma, lack of funds

YANGON, 26 June 2009 (IRIN) – Nay Lin Soe, aged 28, campaigns for the rights of the disabled in Myanmar, a marginalized group with few rights and little support.

He contracted polio at the age of three, gets around on crutches, and has devoted his adult life to raising awareness of, and dispelling negative attitudes towards, disability.

“People in Myanmar think about disability in a traditional way,” Nay Lin Soe told IRIN. “A family will usually regard a disabled person as a burden. And often a disabled person can feel like a burden because he or she doesn’t have a chance to lead a productive life.”

Government-funded facilities for the disabled are limited. For a nation of 56 million people, there is just one school for disabled children, one vocational training centre for adults, and one rehabilitation centre – all in the commercial capital Yangon.

The disabled make up around 2.3 percent of the population, or some 1.3 million people, according to government figures.

Stigma and lack of mobility hamper them in their efforts to get a good education and a job. “They are isolated and excluded from society. As children they cannot go to school; as adults they have little or no income because it is almost impossible for them to get employment,” said Nay Lin Soe.

The Education Ministry’s policy is to provide opportunities for disabled children in ordinary schools, but problems remain.

This month, the Disabled People’s Development Organization (DPDO), a local NGO established in 2003, will open its first office in Yangon. It aims to change attitudes towards disability, campaign for equal rights and provide a place where its 120 members can come and share their experiences.

Nay Lin Soe, who is on the executive committee, told IRIN: “Lack of capacity is our biggest problem in promoting disability awareness and helping people living with disabilities.”

Rehab programme

Nay Lin Soe is also the project manager of a community-based rehabilitation programme run by AAR Japan, one of the few foreign NGOs funding projects for disabled people in Myanmar.

AAR runs a vocational training centre in a suburb of north Yangon, where disabled people from across the country learn tailoring and hairdressing.

Chit Hinn Wai, who had both legs amputated above the knee after falling from a train at the age of 13, is learning hairdressing on a three month residential course. Since her accident five years ago she has lived in a government-run orphanage and this is the first time she has been able to share her experiences with other disabled people.

“I’ve made new friends and I’ve learned so much. I hope to use my skills and one day lead an independent life,” she said.

AAR also runs community-based rehabilitation programmes in three areas affected by last year’s Cyclone Nargis. They offer physiotherapy, free crutches and braces, and aim to make schools more accessible for disabled children.

But the one-year programme is a tiny contribution. “There just isn’t enough support, from both inside and outside the country,” said Nay Lin Soe. “My hope is that all disabled people in Myanmar can live with dignity.”

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Time Magazine – Why Burma May Be North Korea’s Best Friend
By Ishaan Tharoor Friday, Jun. 26, 2009

North Korea is great at scaring its neighbors. The isolated dictatorship carries a real nuclear threat, and tested its latest device this May in an underground bunker. Tensions in East Asia heightened this week after Pyongyang threatened “a fire shower of nuclear retaliation” if the U.S. or its allies in the region attempted any provocative action when trying to curb North Korea’s missile program. Even those with historically warmer ties to the pariah state, such as Russia and China, have bristled at Pyongyang’s latest moves. Still, North Korea may not be without friends.

Reports this week reminded the world of a fitting — if slightly bewildering — relationship: a decrepit and slow North Korean cargo ship, reportedly laden with arms, is on its way to Burma, a country ruled by a similarly obstinate and oppressive military junta. A watchful U.S. missile destroyer is following, close on its heels.

From most accounts, the Kang Nam 1 is a rusty old freighter, inching along at a paltry 10 knots an hour. By Thursday, it was believed to be chugging through Chinese or Taiwanese waters, having left the North Korean port of Nampo a week ago, and headed, according to the South Korean press, to the Burmese port of Thilawa. Its cargo is unknown; Burma’s state newspaper claims authorities expect the arrival of a “rice-bearing” North Korean vessel, though most news reports suspect the Kang Nam 1 bears a load of small arms and other conventional weapons. North Korea, whose people have lived on the verge of famine for decades, is not a known food exporter.

What it does export is invariably shrouded in mystery. Pyongyang exists frozen outside the global economy and raises funds through a host of backdoor activities, including the manufacture of counterfeit money and dissemination of its military secrets and technological capabilities to a whole network of dubious customers. As a consequence of Pyongyang’s recent bellicose behavior, a new U.N. resolution passed this June forbids the country from exporting arms and authorizes member states to search North Korean vessels suspected to be carrying them, though they must first seek Pyongyang’s legal consent — effectively, a non-starter. Nevertheless, the U.S.S. John McCain, an Aegis class destroyer, has been tailing the freighter and will be replaced now by the U.S.S. McCampbell as the Kang Nam 1 nears the Straits of Malacca and Singapore, perhaps the world’s biggest maritime pit stop. The city-state’s government says it will act “appropriately” should the vessel call at its port with illegal materials on board. According to South Korean press, the Kang Nam 1 will need to refuel soon.

North Korean links with Burma range far beyond small firearms — indeed, ties between the two outcast nations are literally deep. North Korean engineers reportedly aided the Burma’s junta in building a vast series of 600 to 800 tunnel complexes and underground facilities, particularly beneath the junta’s secretive new capital of Naypyidaw.

Photographs leaked earlier this month to YaleGlobal, an international affairs website, show North Korean technicians milling around guest houses in the capital. Others published by the Oslo-based Democratic Voice of Burma, an anti-government television channel, detail the extent of some of these complexes, which have independent power supplies, built-in ventilation systems, and are reportedly large enough to allow large vehicles to drive through them. The projects have been nicknamed “tortoise shells” by the government — the often brutally repressive regime intends to use North Korea’s subterranean savvy to man a network of underground command centers, linked with fiber-optic cable, that can rule Burma in times of emergency and quash any civilian uprising.

The Burmese and North Koreans were not always this close. In 1983, North Korean agents bombed a South Korean delegation visiting a monument in Rangoon. More than 20 people died and Burma severed relations with Pyongyang. But the two nations held secret talks during the 1990s and restored formal ties in 2007. Soon thereafter, North Korean vessels started docking at Burmese ports, reportedly unloading heavy equipment and weapons parts. It is suspected that resource-rich Burma sends minerals, rubber and foodstuffs to North Korea in return for such assistance.

A tense standoff between U.S. ships and the Kang Nam 1 would hardly upset Pyongyang; the Burmese junta has proven to be wholly insensitive to criticism and protest from the outside world. Watchers of both isolated states see a joint circling of wagons in the face of a hostile international community. With many policy makers already tearing at their hair over North Korea’s nuclear intransigence, it’s a state of affairs that can only deepen global concern.

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Op-Ed Contributor
The New York Times – Don’t Moon Over Burma
By MARIE DOEZEMA
Published: June 26, 2009

DOHA — It doesn’t take a trip to Myanmar to see that measures taken by the international community against the Burmese junta are not working. Recent headlines and the trial of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi indicate that Myanmar continues to be mired in repression.

I recently took a trip there nonetheless. I have friends there, Burmese and foreigners, and I wanted to visit them in their country, a place they described as both beautiful and tragic.

Two days into the trip, I found myself eating fried tadpoles and drinking Champagne with Tay Za, one of country’s most powerful businessmen and a close ally of the military junta.

My friends and I had been en route to Putao, a mountainous region in the far north sandwiched between China and India. Abundant in wildlife and natural resources, the area is unreachable by road and visits require government permits. We took three flights to get there from Yangon. The owner of the airline, Tay Za, was on board with us.

As he exited the plane, Tay Za invited us to his lavish tourist lodge the following day. It felt less like an invitation than a summons. We had the feeling that he wanted to size us up.

At dinner the next evening, the normally elusive Tay Za was effusive, giving us a crash course on how things work in Myanmar.

On international sanctions: Who cares? Why bother with Europe and the U.S. when China and India are right next door?

He described his plans for Putao, which include developing infrastructure and another luxury resort. What this will mean for the region isn’t yet clear.

Once our trekking trip got underway, we spent days hiking through clouds, drinking from mountain streams, staying in small villages, sleeping in elevated huts woven from rattan. The night air wafted in through the cracks, mingling with smoke from the fire.

The forests were tangles of mushrooms, wild strawberries and orchids. We met hunters and gatherers who spent their days in the woods. In the last village we visited, mail came three times a year.

One night, we met with a village elder and a medicine man. Every year, they said, ice on the nearby mountains recedes farther into the distance. We talked about the plans to build a road to the village.

Tay Za loomed large over this part of the country, and we had the sense that his name would follow us everywhere. A few days earlier, back at his lodge, he had talked of his hopes for the road. For him, a road would mean easier access to a region he’s hungry to develop. For the locals, it would make life easier, but could also bring changes that threaten traditional resources and livelihoods.

If development brings catastrophe, locals will do what the birds do, the village elder told us: “We’ll fly away if we have to, go deeper into the forest until it’s safe.”

After the trekking trip, I also visited the ancient city of Bagan, home to thousands of rust-colored pagodas. Here, too, Tay Za had left his mark — a garish tower among the temples: a cocktail lounge with a view.

The town was eerily empty. Guesthouses were all but vacant and rows of restaurants were deserted. Horse carts lined the sides of the roads, waiting for passengers who never seemed to come.

A few kids peddled postcards, others begged for money, food, or anything that might be of value. Anti-child prostitution signs hung on trees and buildings around town. “Our children are not for sale,” they read.

I also visited Mandalay but missed most of the city. The trekking trip had left me covered in bites from leeches and insects, and my body was swollen and feverish. Instead of visiting sites, I searched for a pharmacy. Having been warned of the dangers of counterfeit meds, I wasn’t sure where to go.

Looking for medicine that night felt like the situation in Myanmar. You don’t know what’s real and what’s not; who to trust, who to avoid. You’re stuck in a limbo of justified paranoia.

At the end of the trip, I returned to Yangon. I visited some of the places that had been special to a Burmese friend who now lives abroad. He left almost two decades ago and hasn’t returned. Most of his family is still there.

After years abroad, my friend manages to maintain optimism rather than bitterness. As he wrote to me before I left, “I hope you will still see the amicable smiles of our people. We always find something to lighten our gloomy lives worth living.”

Marie Doezema is a freelance writer.

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ASIAONE – Sanctions unhelpful in Myanmar issue: Thai PM
Fri, Jun 26, 2009
AFP

BEIJING, CHINA – Sanctions against Myanmar’s military junta are not helpful, Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said here Friday following meetings with Chinese leaders.

“China and Thailand do not believe in sanctions,” Abhisit told reporters in Beijing.

“We do not believe that isolating or alienating the Myanmar government – in particular from the international community – will help Myanmar achieve what I think we want to see achieved.

“The international community can only get access (to Myanmar) through the role of neighbours like Thailand that continue to engage with Myanmar,” said Abhisit, who is on the third day of a four-day China visit.
Abhisit had earlier Friday met with President Hu Jintao. He met with Prime Minister Wen Jiabao on Thursday.

UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari arrived in Myanmar on Friday to pave the way for a possible visit by the world body’s Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that will focus on the trial of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

During his two-day trip Gambari is set to meet senior figures from the ruling junta but there were no immediate plans for him to see Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi or members of her political party, Myanmar officials said.

Ban and Gambari have been trying to persuade Myanmar’s ruling generals to free all political detainees, including Aung San Suu Kyi, and to steer their country on the path to democracy.

Aung San Suu Kyi, 64, is being held in jail on charges of violating her house arrest after an American man, John Yettaw, swam uninvited to her lakeside home earlier this year. She faces up to five years in prison if convicted.

She has spent 13 of the past 19 years in detention since the ruling generals refused to recognise the landslide victory of her National League for Democracy party in 1990 elections.

China is particularly close to Myanmar, and has in the past vetoed United Nations Security Council resolutions against its isolated neighbour.

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Bangkok Post – Opinion: Gambari to prepare way for UN chief’s visit
By: LARRY JAGAN
Published: 26/06/2009 at 12:00 AM
Newspaper section: News

The United Nations’ special envoy Ibrahim Gambari is scheduled to arrive in Burma shortly to prepare the way for the proposed visit of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon early next month. The UN diplomat will begin his trip later today, according to a Burmese government official. “It will be a short visit to discuss national reconciliation and make arrangements for Mr Ban’s visit,” the Burmese official said on condition of anonymity.

“If Ban Ki-moon is coming to Burma then Gambari – as his special envoy – would have to lay the groundwork for the visit,” said a Western diplomat in Rangoon.

Asian diplomatic sources believe that Mr Ban will travel to Burma immediately after his scheduled visit to Tokyo from June 30 to July 2. While his itinerary after that is undecided, a visit to Burma is a “possibility”, said UN spokeswoman Michelle Montas.

The Burmese regime reportedly has invited the UN chief to visit in July. Mr Gambari is certainly going to be carrying a formal response, probably in the form of a letter from Mr Ban Ki-moon to Senior General Than Shwe, the junta’s strongman. As yet it is unclear whether Mr Gambari will meet the general this time; on many of his previous visits the junta leader refused to see him.

Most diplomats in Rangoon believe the secretary-general’s expectations will be laid out during Mr Gambari’s trip. Two weeks ago Mr Ban told journalists at the UN headquarters in New York: “When the time is appropriate and conditions are ripe, as I said many times, I’m ready to visit Myanmar. I’m working on that now.”

Mr Ban visited Burma late last May, in the wake of the devastation caused by Cyclone Nargis and chaired the donors’ meeting in Rangoon which provided crucial aid for cyclone victims and the country’s subsequent recontruction plans. During that visit he had a one-hour meeting with Gen Than Shwe, in which there was a frank and friendly discussion, according to Burmese military sources. Officially, Mr Ban has insisted that only humanitarian issues were discussed during that trip, as that was the pre-condition for the visit. However during their talks, Gen Than Shwe reportedly asked the UN chief what he thought about the country’s “roadmap to democracy”. And the secretary-general seized the opportunity to urge the junta leader to make the national reconcilaition process transparent and inclusive and told the general that the National League for Democracy must be allowed to contest the elections in 2010 for them to be credible internationally. He also told Gen Than Shwe that all political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi, should be released as soon as possible, according to UN officials.

As the discussion came to an end, according to a person present at the meeting, Gen Than Shwe slapped his thigh and said this was the most frank and open conversation he had ever had with a foreigner.

Mr Ban is hoping that he will be able personally to build on the rapport that was established between the two men during their exchange last May.

Mr Ban of course has already made the key issues clear: “Promoting democratisation, including the release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners, has been one of my top priorities and it will continue to be my top priority,” Mr Ban said recently.

Mr Gambari and Mr Ban are likely to be visiting Burma during the ongoing trial of the detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, which was due to resume today but has been postponed yet again.

She has been charged with breaking the terms of her house arrest and if convicted, faces five years in jail. The world’s top leaders, including Ban Ki-moon, have all condemned the trial as a sham. Her fate may decide whether Mr Ban does continue on to Burma after Japan. Mr Gambari might not be allowed to see Daw Suu Kyi, who is currently being held in Insein prison, as the regime considers his trip primarily a preparatory one for the UN’s top man. Mr Ban, however, almost certainly will be allowed to meet the lady if he visits as expected next month.

After his short visit, Mr Gambari will fly on to Tokyo to convey the junta’s responses to the UN chief’s expectations. While this may be Mr Gambari’s eighth and final visit to Burma as the UN special envoy, it may yet prove to be his most crucial.

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Bangkok Post – UN should help govt push Burmese reconciliation
By: ACHARA ASHAYAGACHAT
Published: 26/06/2009 at 12:00 AM
Newspaper section: News

More than 3,000 Karen, mostly women and children, have fled from Burma into Thailand to escape heavy fighting since June 2.

The influx is creating problems for Thailand which, as Burma’s neighbour and chairman of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, is justified in wanting a say on how well the junta’s national reconciliation plan is going.

In the past 24 years, more than 150,000 displaced persons, mostly members of ethnic groups, have fled from Burma into Thailand, which provides shelter for the Burmese at nine camps along the 2,400km border.

The army has also extended shelter to the most recent 3,000 Karen arrivals, and non-governmental organisations are providing basic humanitarian assistance.

However, the government has yet to say unequivocally how it will deal with the security problem at the border.

Security agencies are reluctant to allow international organisations a bigger say in dealing with displaced people, although they would be happy if third countries could offer the Burmese migrants a home.

But that is not a sustainable solution as long as the cause of the problem goes unaddressed.

Burma bridles when outsiders “interfere” in matters which it regards as domestic concerns. At times like these, Thailand also looks to the United Nations for a lead in addressing Burma’s internal worries.

The UN secretary-general’s special envoy on Burma, Ibrahim Gambari, is scheduled to arrive in Burma again today for a one-day visit. While there, he should raise the problem of refugees sheltering on Thai soil.

As Asean chairman, Thailand has called on the UN to intervene in Burma’s national reconciliation efforts. As Burma makes slow progress, patience is wearing thin. Blame for inaction should not be pinned on Asean alone. The UN should also take some responsibility.

Mr Gambari, on his eighth visit to Burma, will hopefully obtain at least one concession. That is to secure a guarantee from the junta that it will receive UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon early next month.

Mr Ban is visiting Japan from June 30 to July 2 and a trip to Burma could be added to the itinerary, said UN undersecretary-general on public information Kiyo Akasaka.

Mr Ban, he said, might not be seen as powerful or convincing in the eyes of the media in dealing with the Burmese government.

“However, he does carry weight, and strength,” Mr Akasaka said. It is quiet diplomacy that counted and Mr Ban has negotiated with the Burmese leader – but not in an unpleasant way as many people seem to expect. “Burma is aware of Ban Ki-moon’s stance.

He wants to return to the country to discuss matters beyond what was set down – talks on relief efforts for last year’s Cyclone Nargis,” he said.

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The Christian Science Monitor – Burma (Myanmar) presses rebels in bid to eliminate armed opposition
The offensive is pushing thousands of refugees into Thailand. It appears to be a rebuke to Burma’s neighbor, which has criticized the junta for its trial of democracy advocate Aung San Suu Kyi.
By Simon Montlake | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
from the June 26, 2009 edition

Bangkok, Thailand – A four-week military offensive in eastern Burma (Myanmar) has pushed back ethnic Karen rebels and forced thousands of refugees to flee across the border into Thailand. The attacks appear to underscore the determination of Burma’s regime to snuff out what little armed opposition remains to its rule ahead of elections next year.

Burma is already in the international spotlight over its treatment of detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who is on trial for breaking the terms of her house arrest after an American man swam across a lake to visit her against her will. The trial is due to resume on July 3.

Burma is also the presumed customer for the cargo aboard a North Korean ship that the US Navy is currently tailing. Burmese state media reported Thursday that authorities had no information on the vessel.

In recent months, Burma’s junta has begun pressuring ethnic insurgent groups with which it has previously signed cease-fire agreements to put their fighters under military command as border guards. Most are expected to contest the elections, showing a willingness to participate in the process. But they have been reluctant to disarm after decades of strife with a military that is dominated by the ethnic Burman majority.

The largest group that has signed a cease-fire, the United Wa State Army (UWSA), has already rejected the regime’s proposal. The UWSA has around 20,000 fighters and is accused of involvement with drug trafficking in northern Burma, which is second only to Afghanistan in opium production.

“It’s a gamble. The ethnic groups are not falling into line,” says a Western diplomat in Bangkok.

Karen militia under pressure

The Karen National Union (KNU) is among a handful of groups in Burma that haven’t signed cease-fire agreements with the regime. Its armed wing, the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), has been fighting for six decades after Britain, the former colonial power, failed to deliver on a promise of self-rule for Karen people, who are estimated to number around seven million.

Burmese military offensives against the rebels normally intensify during the dry season. But, in a change of tactics, the current onslaught comes during monsoon rains that slow the advance of troops.

Since early June, Burmese troops, supported by a breakaway Karen militia, have forced the KNLA to abandon several bases along the border with Thailand. This has disrupted supply routes and raised fears of a wider collapse in its defenses that may trigger a larger refugee outflow.

More than 4,500 villagers have crossed the border to escape the fighting and out of fear of being abused by soldiers, says Zipporah Sein, general secretary of the KNU. More than 1,000 are staying at a Buddhist monastery, and others are sheltering with relatives or at makeshift camps.

Karen leaders are talking to Thai authorities and the UN’s refugee agency about what do next. More than 140,000 mostly Karen refugees already live in camps along the border. “If it’s not safe for people to return, they would be sent to these camps,” says Ms. Sein.

Thai diplomats have said privately that the timing of the offensive is a deliberate rebuke to Thailand for its criticism of Ms. Suu Kyi’s trial. By stirring unrest along the border, Burma may seek to warn Thailand, its historical rival, not to meddle in its political affairs.

In May, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), to which Burma belongs and which Thailand currently chairs, warned that the trial was affecting the “honor and credibility” of Burma. The statement issued in Thailand’s name provoked an angry response from Burma’s state media and claims of interference by its neighbor. In the past, ASEAN has shied away from frank comment on member countries.

Burma is “sending a clear message to Thailand and other ASEAN countries to take them seriously. This [trial] is much more important for them than [defeating] the KNU,” says Bo Hla Tint, a spokesperson for the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma, an exiled group.

Western diplomats say Thailand doesn’t want Burma’s political impasse to overshadow a regional summit that it is hosting next month, which US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is expected to attend. In April, the summit was called off at the last minute due to political unrest in Thailand.

Hobbled by infighting, the KNLA appears to be on the ropes, outgunned and outnumbered. Supporters say that combatants organized into conventional military units may eventually return to guerrilla warfare, as it becomes harder to hold territory. Political leaders could also sue for peace, though that would open more fissures in the movement.
“In the long run, we don’t see how the KNU can hold on. They’ve been losing their camps over the last decade,” says a Thai intelligence official.

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The Guardian Weekly – Inside Burma: ‘They can’t tell what’s true anymore’
Friday June 26th 2009

Fred Taino is a Burmese-speaking human rights defender who regularly visits Burma. Following a recent trip to Burma’s biggest city, Yangon, he describes the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis, how locals are fighting repression, human rights abuses and how tourists have deserted the country

Yangon looks different after Nargis. About 70% of the big trees collapsed so the view of the city has changed; much more is revealed. The tragedy is remarkable for the fact that many either lost their entire families in the cyclone, or they lost no one. I haven’t come across anyone who just lost an uncle or grandfather because in the places that were hit nearly everyone was swept out to sea and drowned. I asked about one monastery I have stayed in and was told that two of the monks had lost relatives, and for both it was their entire extended families. One man’s entire village was wiped off the map.

The psychological damage of this is enormous but there doesn’t seem to be any attempt to come to terms with it at all on a national scale. The cyclone caused many business- or middle-class families from the damaged areas to move into the cities. This year those who can afford it have moved to Yangon for the rainy season.

These days more mobile phones are being used and they’re just starting to introduce pre-paid cards, which will mean that access to people is a bit less restricted. But despite some differences – more overseas employment shops and more internet cafés – the living conditions remain stagnant. In the rainy season there’s pretty much no electricity from local grids (there’s no national grid) and almost every business has a generator running. Many households do without. There are huge problems with the water supply too; you only get water when the power comes on and in the dry season the pipes often dry out.

It doesn’t look like imprisoning Aung San Suu Kyi is going to generate protests inside the country; she was barely discussed, not like the way she used to be. There is great respect and concern for the monks in jail from last year’s protests, but again, it rarely comes up. From the conversations I had and those I listened in on, people are much more concerned with the basics, like the cost of food and the fact that more products are turning up with toxins in them. People were contracting serious illnesses this spring from mouldy, dried chilli.

In terms of the political situation the Burmese have an expression – hpyit thaloe nay – it basically means: “You just have to live with it.” People ask why should they spend their time and energy thinking about something when they can’t tell what’s true anymore? After fifty years this is how they survive psychologically.

Aung San Suu Kyi embodied expectations for change, but by systematically destroying her party and locking her away, the regime has managed to bring them down. It may still be there, deep inside people, but now it’s like a sadness more than anything else.

In internet cafés the computers have proxy programs to beat the censors and almost all staff members have numbers committed to memory. I went to one café and found that Yahoo was blocked but the attendant was able to help me access it pretty quickly by trying a few different proxy addresses. Those people know an incredible amount about the technology out there out of necessity. But they probably wouldn’t help me access a controversial site, such as Human Rights Watch, and I thought it dangerous to try. Most users wouldn’t think to anyway; they are like net café customers everywhere: 15 to 20 year olds playing computer games and downloading rock music from South Korea. The consequences of anything else have been made all too clear to them.

Still, the technological capabilities of the police force are limited, often in a ridiculous way. Police reports tend to be vague about exactly what they find in a supposed dissident’s possession. If a hard drive is recovered, the contents are not usually mentioned; this is because they don’t know what they’re dealing with, and because they don’t need to detail anything for a charge to be made.

It’s still a surveillance culture in the sense of insulation. People watch what one another are doing.

The economy has just stalled. The current figure on tourism is a quarter of a million people, and most of those are from neighbouring countries. Only 90,000 came from further afield on tourist visas this financial year. For a country of this size and compared to the expectations they had in the nineties, it’s very low – they were talking about half a million then, and this year projecting millions. There were five-star hotels built and never completed in Yangon. Some are concrete shells and some have been converted into private hospitals, which is pretty much the only boom area, and it’s thanks to Chinese and South Korean expat business travellers.

But there’s no other new development. All state funds were poured into this new national capital of ostentatious buildings and highways with no cars on them. The one from the Yangon airport to Naypyidaw is about to be officially opened. One driver I talked to said he’d never seen a road like it in his life.

The private news journals can’t say anything about the economic downturn directly, though you can sometimes read between the lines. Instead they give regular announcements of new committees being formed to solve every problem under the sun.

On the plane out I sat next to a consultant dealing with the mortality rates of pregnant women, who told me that not only is Burma the worst place for this in South East Asia, but it doesn’t even come close to somewhere like Cambodia. The statistics are similar she says – about three to four hundred deaths per 100,000 births in both countries – yet though she thinks this is true in Cambodia the anecdotal evidence in Burma says otherwise. In interviews in Cambodian villages she’ll hear of maybe one woman who died in childbirth in a year, in one village in Burma there were 14.

Tourists are free to travel to most places except those frontier areas under ceasefire arrangements such as parts of the Shan State, or economically sensitive areas like the ruby mines. Wherever you go outside of the main tourist areas though, be expected to be questioned by officials – usually three or four representing different government agencies. They don’t seem to trust each other.

Fred Taino was interviewed by journalist Jo Baker

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Mizzima News – Court adjourns Suu Kyi’s trial to July 3
by Mungpi
Friday, 26 June 2009 18:41

New Delhi (mizzima) – The special court in Insein Prison on Friday adjourned the hearing of the testimony of a second defense witness in the trial against opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to July 3rd, as the country’s High Court has yet to rule on an appeal to allow the remaining two defense witnesses.

Nyan Win, a member of Aung San Suu Kyi’s legal team, said the court on Friday convened at about 10 a.m. (local time) and adjourned about thirty minutes later with the judge scheduling the testimony of Khin Moh Moh, the second defense witness, for July 3rd.

“Since the decision from the High Court has not yet been announced, the lower court cannot go ahead with the case,” Nyan Win iterated.

Earlier in the week, the High Court heard arguments by defense lawyers to allow the remaining two defense witnesses – Tin Oo, Vice-Chairman of the National League for Democracy (NLD), and Win Tin, a veteran journalist and Central Executive Committee member of the NLD – to take the stand.

On Thursday, Burma’s Chief of Police, Khin Yi, told journalists and diplomats at a rare news conference in Rangoon that Aung San Suu Kyi is responsible for the secret visit by the American man, John William Yettaw, as she failed to immediately report the incident to the authorities concerned.

Khin Yi accused the detained Nobel Peace Laureate of delaying notification of Yettaw’s initial visit at the end of 2008 by four days, putting authorities in a difficult situation to trace the case.

He added he suspects a mastermind behind Yettaw’s visit to the Burmese democracy icon’s house on the shores of Inya Lake in Rangoon, and that authorities are still trying to find out which group is responsible for the breech in security.

But opposition groups, including the NLD, have accused the junta of using the incident as a pretext to continue detaining Aung San Suu Kyi in order to remove her from the public realm prior to and during their planned election in 2010.

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Mizzima News – Ashin Gambira’s prison term reduced by five years
by Phanida
Friday, 26 June 2009 16:17

Chiang Mai (mizzima) – Monk Ashin Gambira, arrested and sentenced to 68 years in prison for his lead role in anti-junta protests in September 2007 has had his prison term reduced by five years by a  district court in Insein prison on Thursday.

The western district court reduced the sentence of Gambira, leader of the All Burma Buddhist Monks Association by five years. He was charged under the Electronics Act. The reverend monk, who was charged on 16 counts, will now have to serve 63 years in prison.

The Electronics Act 33 (a) stipulates that using the internet without the permission of the authorities is an offence and is punishable. The law became a tool for the authorities to sentence the reverend monk, who took a lead role in the September 2007 monk-led protests.

Lawyers of the monk, who is 29, and is currently detained in a prison in Kalemyo in Sagaing division, have appealed to the district court. The court said the appeals were late and rejected appeals for seven counts.

The legal counsels have now, submitted appeals on the other nine counts, and the court has scheduled a session on June 29.

Ashin Gambira, however, denied appealing but the lawyers have been acting on the request of his parents.

Authorities have also arrested the monk’s elder brother Aung Kyaw Kyaw and sentenced him to 14 years in prison. He is currently detained in Tuaggyi prison in Shan state. Similarly, his younger brother Aung Ko Ko Lwin and brother-in-law Moe Htet Lian were also arrested and sentenced to five years each and are respectively in Kyuak Pyu prison in Arakan state and Moulmein prison in Mon state.

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The Irrawaddy – Tunnel Construction Pictures Spark Questions
By MIN LWIN, Friday, June 26, 2009

Is the North Korean involvement in advising and building underground tunnels in Burma concentrated on military-based activities, or does it also include hydropower projects which are scattered around the country?

That is one of the questions raised by Burmese civil engineers living inside and outside Burma, since photographs of a tunnel construction site were posted on news Web sites in recent weeks including the Democratic Voice of Burma, Yale Global online and The Irrawaddy.

Unsolicited photographs and video were published in recent weeks from a number of sources including the Burmese military and Burmese activists.

Some of the photographs showing tunnel construction were sent to The Irrawaddy by an organization calling itself the Peace Creation Group, an underground group in Burma.

When The Irrawaddy editors contacted members of the group, they said the photographs were taken around Naypyidaw, but they had no knowledge of what the photographs showed.

Some images appear to show civilian workers in blue-colored uniforms, other people who appear to be foreigners from Asia, Burmese military officers, and normal construction site workers. Workers with the Ministry of Electricity normally wear blue-colored uniforms.

Burmese engineers inside and outside the country noted that the military regime currently has 12 hydropower projects scheduled, including the Ye Ywa hydropower project, 31 miles southeast of Mandalay, the largest in the country.

“I am wondering whether these photos are for hydropower projects or military purposes,” wrote one civil engineer who worked on the Paunglaung hydropower project near Naypyidaw.

“As for me, I can’t distinguish which one is military or for hydropower projects,” he said. “Hydropower project tunnels are quite large, [and] are built underground [and sometimes in] mountains,” he wrote.

Burma’s directorate of military engineers, along with private construction contractors, is involved in implementing hydropower projects and underground tunnels.

Suspicions about the exact purposes of tunnel construction in Burma were heightened recently after accounts surfaced about Burmese-North Korean military cooperation in the areas of military hardware procurement and tunnel construction projects.

According to a MoU signed between Burma and North Korea which has been obtained by The Irrawaddy, Burma plans to build a military headquarter facility with a maze of underground tunnels around Naypyidaw, the remote capital.

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The Irrawaddy – Commentary: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back
By KYAW ZWA MOE, Friday, June 26, 2009

The trial of Aung San Suu Kyi is an unofficial step in the ruling junta’s seven-step road map. It is an essential one for the generals as they look ahead to the fifth step—the upcoming election in 2010.

The generals must now see, however, that by putting Suu Kyi on trial they took one step forward and two steps back.

The regime had no alternative as it prepared for the upcoming election. For the generals, the election is not only a step towards politcal legitimacy, but also the apparatus with which they can legalize the role of the military within the country’s political system.

The road map has three more steps—the election, the convening of a parliamentary assembly and the construction of “a modern, developed and democratic nation.” That’s the generals’ political aim.

In order to complete the whole process, the junta faced one big problem: Suu Kyi, who should have been freed on May 27 after serving six years of house arrest. Her release would have come at least seven months, probably longer, before the planned election.

Free at last, Suu Kyi would have been regarded as a potential troublemaker by the generals, whose political exit strategy would have been closed.

By arresting her and putting her on trial, the junta forestalled that danger, at least for the time being. It was a risky ploy that has unleashed an international outcry that must have surprised the regime.

Once begun, the trial had to continue, with only one verdict in sight: guilty. Suu Kyi will be sentenced to up to five more years of incarceration—and the regime will have taken two big steps backwards.

Unlike its past persecution of Suu Kyi, however, the regime cannot expect to return to “business as usual” this time.

Judging by the volume of international condemnation unleashed by the trial, Suu Kyi’s imprisonment would undoubtedly bring criticism from governments and organizations that have largely ignored past abuses by the regime. Concern about events in Burma is voiced now not only in Washington and other Western capitals.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), which has traditionally protected the Burmese regime, recently took the unusual step of issuing a statement condemning the trial and calling for Suu Kyi’s release. The statement was formally issued by the Asean chair, Thailand, once a staunch supporter of strong ties to Burma.

During a visit to Burma in early June, Singapore’s Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong urged Burma’s junta leaders not to allow the trial of the pro-democracy leader to affect the national reconciliation process, and to ensure that next year’s general election is free and fair.

Goh emphasized that the elections must be inclusive and that the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD), led by Suu Kyi, must be part of the process of national reconciliation.

The Burmese junta was also told by Goh—probably much to its chagrin—that Singapore investors were likely to wait until after the 2010 election before pouring any more money into the country.

The Asean statement and Goh’s outspoken appeals indicate that the members of the regional grouping are running out of patience with their out-of-step associate.

As international pressure on the regime mounted, the junta’s No 2, Snr-Gen Maung Aye, rushed to China for talks with leaders of Burma’s closest ally. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao reportedly told him that China hoped the junta would promote democracy in Burma.

Although it was natural for the regime to consult at this critical time with a government whose support it so badly needs at the UN, the Burmese junta never allows any country, including China, to dictate its internal politics.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was expected to visit Burma in early July following UN calls for the release of Suu Kyi and more than 2,000 other political prisoners, as well as an assurance that the 2010 election will be all-inclusive. The junta has never heeded such calls from the UN or the international community, however.

There is little chance, anyway, that the election will be all-inclusive, since the NLD is expected to take its own step backwards and boycott the poll unless Suu Kyi is freed.

Before the trial, there was a chance that the NLD would agree to participate.

A change of heart by the regime is highly unlikely, and the decision to keep Suu Kyi safely out of the political arena has surely already been taken. She will probably be sentenced to a further three years or so of loss of freedom and be returned to her home to serve it there.

But the regime’s headaches don’t end there. Suu Kyi’s trial is turning out to be the most intractable problem it has faced in the 20 years it has held power.

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DVB News – ‘Lawyers of the government’ steering Suu Kyi trial

June 26, 2009 (DVB)–A witness disqualified from testifying in the defense of Burma’s Aung San Suu Kyi said yesterday following his appeal that it was not “ordinary lawyers” making key decisions in the trial but government cronies.

Suu Kyi’s defense team yesterday appealed to Burma’s supreme court to admit two witnesses who were disqualified last month by judges from testifying.

One of Suu Kyi’s lawyers said that the decision was not in accordance with Burmese law. One of the witnesses, U Tin Oo, is currently under house arrest, while U Win Tin has been criticized by the junta for giving interviews about the trial to foreign media.

Both are senior members of the opposition National League for Democracy party, which Suu Kyi leads.

“I argued that there is no law there that says that [someone under house arrest]…can’t testify,” said lawyer Nyan Win.

“I argued that there is nowhere in the law that says that someone who doesn’t agree with the government can’t testify, with regards to U Win Tin.”

Three of Suu Kyi’s four witnesses were initially barred, although one was later readmitted. The prosecution team was permitted 14 witnesses, although only nine eventually testified.

Win Tin said yesterday that it was clear what the government’s attitude towards Suu Kyi’s team is.

“The people who put forward the [witness disqualification] argument are people from the central lawyers’ office…the lawyers of the government,” he said.

“I feel as if they are giving me a sign that they want to trap me legally, and sue me or intimidate me.”

Rumours have been circulating in Rangoon that Win Tin could be charged by judges for refusing to return his prisoner uniform, which he has been wearing since he was released last year from a 19 year sentence.

On the subject of UN envoy Gambari’s visit to Burma, which began this morning, Win Tin said that dialogue must be sought.

“When Mr. Gambari comes, he must meet with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi – that must be his priority,” he said.

“If he can’t do that…his trip has no meaning and has no value.”

Gambari’s trip could pave the way for a visit by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who was invited by the government to visit in July, although he has not confirmed whether the trip will go ahead.

“The main thing Mr Ban Ki-moon has to do is to try to arrange a meeting between Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and Senior General Than Shwe,” Win Tin said.

Reporting by Khin Hnin Htet

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DVB News – Thai education reform to benefit Burmese migrants

June 26, 2009 (DVB)–Burmese migrants and refugees living on the periphery of Thai society could benefit from the Thai government’s new plans to strengthen its education policy for migrant and stateless children in the country.

Thailand hosts some 3.5 million stateless persons, the majority of which are Burmese who have fled conflict in the country or who come to Thailand to find employment. Around 80 per cent of labour migrants are Burmese.

Currently all children, except those living in refugee camps, are ostensibly entitled to be educated in Thai schools regardless of their nationality.

The cost of schooling and transportation can often prevent migrant children from attending, and poses particular problems for the estimated 500,000 children born to Burmese parents in Thailand.

Speaking on the World Day Against Child Labour earlier this month, Thailand’s deputy education minister, Chaiwut Bannawat, spoke of the government’s plan to improve its ‘education for all’ policy to better include migrant and stateless children.

Problems with the feasibility for migrant children attending school are compounded by the transient lifestyle of their parents, who often move from place to place in search of work.

“Some migrant communities are very mobile; construction site workers don’t stay in one place, they work on a construction site for three months and then move to another area, so it is difficult for the families to put the children to school, ” said Jackie Pollock, director of the Migrant Assistance Programme (MAP) Foundation.

“Many migrant parents are afraid to put children on a school bus or something, because they have heard about trafficking and they are scared they won’t see their children again.”

In areas of northern Thailand, such as Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai and Mae Sot, active NGO’s and departments of education mean migrant children have a good chance of accessing education.

In Bangkok, however, where only an estimated 200 registered migrant children are studying, the problem becomes more worrying.

“There are areas where thousands and thousands of children are falling through this system,” said Pollock.

It remains unclear what exactly the government is planning to do, but, said Pollock, officials may look into giving some legal status to the migrant learning centers while improving the current system for migrant children in Thai schools.

Reporting by Rosalie Smith

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