Case is “totally unfair,” says Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi
ASEAN summit to tackle Burma stalemate
EU threatens new Burma sanctions
Clinton’s Burma Agenda
McCain Blasts Burma, Neighbors Ahead of Clinton Visit to Asia
Tunnel Troops’ Families Look to Occult for Help
Maung Aye winds up Shan State tour
SAARC Ambassadors Club inaugurated in Myanmar
NKorea, Myanmar loom over Asian security forum
Asean’s credibility and relevance in the spotlight
Than Shwe’s grandson learns flying
Burma buys electricity from China
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Case is “totally unfair,” says Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi
Asia-Pacific News
Jul 17, 2009, 12:25 GMT

Yangon – Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi feels the junta’s latest case against her, which may see her behind bars for five years, is ‘totally unfair,’ one of her lawyers said Friday.

Suu Kyi stands accused of allowing US national John William Yettaw to swim to her lakeside house-cum-prison on May 3 and stay there uninvited until swimming away on the night of May 5.

She has been accused of breaking the terms of her detention for allowing Yettaw, a member of the Mormon sect who reportedly wanted to warn Suu Kyi of an assassination plot against her, to enter her compound without informing authorities.

Nyan Win, one of Suu Kyi’s legal team, met with the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Friday to brief her on the defence’s closing argument which will be heard in court on July 24.

Suu Kyi’s legal team has argued that Yettaw first tried to contact her in November, last year, to pass over a copy of the Book of Mormon, in an incident that was reported by Suu Kyi to authorities.

‘Daw (Mrs) Aung San Suu Kyi reported to authorities but nobody came into her house and no questions were asked at all about that,’ Nyan Win said. ‘She said it was totally unfair that government accused her of not cooperating with authorities, ‘ Nyan Win said.

Suu Kyi, the leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD) opposition party, was serving an indefinite detention period in her Yangon family compound when Yettaw performed his swimming feat.

On May 27, Myanmar authorities announced that her six-ear detention had expired. But now she faces a three-to-five- year prison sentence if found guilty of breaking the terms of that detention.

Suu Kyi’s trial began in a special court set up in Yangon’s notorious Insein Prison on May 11.

Critics have accused the military junta of using the case as a pretext to keep Suu Kyi in jail during a politically sensitive period leading up to a general election planned for next year.

Suu Kyi has spent 13 of the past 19 years in detention.

Suu Kyi’s NLD won the 1990 general election by a landslide but has been blocked from power by Myanmar’s junta for the past 19 years.

The new trial of Suu Kyi has sparked a chorus of protests from world leaders and even statements of concern from its regional allies in the Association of South-East Asian Nations.

Read more:
http://www.monsters andcritics. com/news/ asiapacific/ news/article_ 1490329.php/ Case_is_% 26quottotally_ unfair%26quot_ says_Myanmars_ Aung_San_ Suu_Kyi _
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ASEAN summit to tackle Burma stalemate

July 17, 2009 (DVB)–The intransigence of the Burmese government and the ongoing political crisis in the country will likely feature high on the agenda of the 42nd ASEAN summit beginning today in Thailand.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will next week arrive on the island of Phuket, which will play host to the week-long annual summit.

The US ambassador to ASEAN, Scot Marciel, told reporters on Wednesday that he “expects” Burma to feature in talks this week.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) bloc has found itself in a predicament in recent months as two of its member nations, North Korea and Burma, have each drawn international condemnation over their respective internal problems.

The two countries featured side by side in news headlines last month as cooperation over weapons technology appeared to heighten, despite North Korea being subject to tough UN arms embargo.

Such behaviour could galvanise an ASEAN community normally reluctant to interfere in domestic problems of member countries.

According to Debbie Stothard, coordinator of advocacy network ALTSEAN-Burma, the development of advanced weaponry, including long-range missiles, makes Burma “more of a traditional threat to the region”.

Similarly, the thousands of refugees fleeing fighting in Burma into neighbouring countries have given Burma’s long-running internal conflict international ramifications.

Joining Clinton at the summit will be senior officials from China, Burma’s northern neighbour and strongest ally which has largely resisted any condemnation of the military government.

There is concern that China’s presence at the summit could outweigh any influence that the US can bring to discussions over tangible action to take on Burma.

But there have been suggestions lately that China’s confidence in its neighbour is waning following increasing unrest in the country which, if not tackled, says Stothard, could “hurt China very seriously”.

“Beijing is starting to understand that it is not in China’s national interests to allow the situation to deteriorate further in Burma,” she said.

“China needs stability in Burma and we can see that the Burmese government is creating more and more instability”.

Reporting by Francis Wade   http://english. dvb.no/news. php?id=2722

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EU threatens new Burma sanctions
By Tim Johnston in Bangkok
Published: July 17 2009 15:13 | Last updated: July 17 2009 15:13

The European Union will impose new sanctions on the Burmese government and its supporters if Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Laureate and opposition leader, is not freed at the end of her current trial, a senior British official said.

Mrs Suu Kyi, who has spent 13 of the last 19 years under house arrest, faces up to five years in jail if she is convicted of breaking the terms of her detention by allowing John Yettaw, an American, to stay the night after he swam uninvited across the lake behind her house in Rangoon last May.

Asif Ahmad, the head of the South East Asia and Pacific Group at Britain’s Foreign Office, said that if she is found guilty and sentenced to detention, the European Union would impose a harsher sanctions regime.

“The trigger point is the exhaustion of the legal process, when the final sentence is anything other than her being freed,” he said. “Looser chains are not acceptable.”

Mr Ahmad said that the EU had put together a working group to look at extra measures, although he declined to be drawn on the nature of any future sanctions beyond saying that they would continue the Union’s path of targeted sanctions.

Along with some broad blocks on trade in arms, timber and gems and a prohibition on companies investing in state-owned enterprises, most of the European Union’s sanctions are designed to bar certain senior members of the regime and businessmen close to them from travelling to Europe and freeze any funds they might have in European banks.

A European diplomat close to the negotiations said that the bloc was still far from consensus on how such sanctions might be strengthened.

“If you look at economic sanctions, our leverage is minimal. There is nothing exciting in our back pocket,” said the diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The diplomat said that given the lack of agreement in Brussels, any increase in the sanctions was likely to be a largely cosmetic display of disapproval rather than anything that would have a significant impact on what is already one of the world’s most isolated regimes.

The US has imposed much broader sanctions, but said at the beginning of the year that it was reviewing its position in view of how little effect they have had. However, the decision to put Mrs Suu Kyi on trial has dimmed the possibility of any immediate relaxation.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009  http://www.ft. com/cms/s/ 0/82f8114c- 72d9-11de- ad98-00144feabdc 0.html
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NEWS ANALYSIS
Clinton’s Burma Agenda
By AUNG ZAW      Friday, July 17, 2009

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made no mention of Burma in her foreign policy speech in Washington this week, but she renewed the US offer to talk with the Iranian regime—but the offer and opportunity would not remain indefinitely, she warned.

Clinton is on her way to Asia—this is her second trip—to attend the 42th Asean Ministerial Meeting in Phuket. Whether she wants it or not, the Burma and North Korea issues will likely dominate the meeting. Clinton, who said she was deeply troubled by the decision by the Burmese regime to charge Suu Kyi with a baseless crime, is not unprepared to speak on the Burma issue, but a US policy review on Burma that began in February is still pending.

During her first trip to Jakarta, Clinton said, “Clearly, the path we have taken in imposing sanctions hasn’t influenced the Burmese junta.” Then she added that the policy adopted by neighboring countries of “reaching out and trying to engage them has not influenced them, either.”

The policy review on Burma is still pending, with the Obama administration wanting to take a different policy direction on Burma from the previous Bush administration. The new policy will probably be a mix of carrots and sticks, but recent events have complicated apparent indications favoring increased diplomacy and outreach from Washington towards Burma’s rulers.

“The recent events with Aung San Suu Kyi are just deeply, deeply concerning, and it makes it very difficult going forward,” said Kurt Campbell, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs told US lawmakers during his confirmation hearing last month.

“We’re in the midst of a very sensitive review,” he said. “We are looking at the situation of the trial and what the junta is considering going forward. It will play into our review.”

If Suu Kyi’s bizarre trial has played a role in the policy review—other sensitive issues include the release of 2,100 political prisoners, the relationship with ethnic groups along the Burmese border with China and Thailand, and the upcoming election in 2010—then no doubt the issue of Burma’s shady relationship with North Korea will also play a part.

Though Washington’s policy review remains incomplete, the US is not without a policy and diplomatic tools. The Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Scot Marciel, assured that Clinton would bring up the issue of Burma during the meeting with Asean foreign ministers.

“I don’t want to try to predict exactly what she’s [Clinton] going to say. I’m confident that she will raise Burma and express our concerns quite clearly,” Marciel said.

“The fundamental policy remains the same, which is to do whatever we can to try to encourage progress in Burma,” he said.

“By progress, I mean the beginning of a dialogue between the government and the opposition and the ethnic minority groups, release of political prisoners and improved governance and, we would hope, more of an opening to the international community,” he said.

Since the trial began in May, the international pressure on Burma has been sustained. The military leaders, diplomats believed, were shocked at the swift and unified reaction from the international community, including Asean and China. As things stand at the moment, the bizarre trial that appeared to be progressing fast in its initial stages has slowed down—perhaps this is a sign that the junta is having second thoughts.

The Burmese leaders received two separate high level visits: one led by Singapore’s senior minister Goh Chok Tong and the other from UN chief Ban Ki-moon. They both delivered a firm message to the regime leaders to make significant progress in national reconciliation.

The regime showed its uncompromising stance when meeting visiting UN chief Ban Ki-moon, who was not allowed to meet Suu Kyi. However, Ban did speak out for the need for an inclusive road map towards democracy, the release of political prisoners and for free and fair elections. Though he left empty-handed, his public remarks gained him kudos in Burma.

In a nutshell, the US is likely to search for more effective ways to encourage dialogue between the military, the opposition and the ethnic nationalities, and to gain the release of political prisoners and make steps towards broad-based reform. It will not be surprising to see more engagement by US officials and diplomats with the regime if the doors are opened.
Critics of US policy on Burma argue that sanctions are a failure, saying that they have only helped entrench the junta’s power, helping it to isolate its people from the outside world.

Nevertheless, to the surprise of many, many Burmese living inside the country (predictably, the Burmese community in exile support the sanctions policy) have expressed support for sanctions that punish the regime leaders.

Though the administration of President Barack Obama is seen to be intent on setting a different course from the Bush administration, such will require considerable creativity, particularly when dealing with rogue regimes like North Korea and Burma.

Referring to Iran, meanwhile, Clinton argued that a policy of engagement was not a sign of weakness. However, Burma’s neighbors who have been strong advocates of “constructive engagement” can only point to a decade of failure. Burma is a tough nut to crack.
http://www.irrawadd y.org/article. php?art_id= 16352
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McCain Blasts Burma, Neighbors Ahead of Clinton Visit to Asia
By LALIT K JHA   Friday, July 17, 2009

WASHINGTON — on the eve of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s departure for India and Thailand, Senator John McCain urged her to push Burma’s neighbors to do more to support the cause of democracy in Burma.

McCain, who was the Republican candidate in last year’s US presidential election, also decried the Burmese junta’s decision to try opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on trumped-up charges.

“The junta’s latest actions are, once again, a desperate attempt by a decaying regime to stall freedom’s inevitable progress, in Burma and across Asia. They will fail as surely as Aung San Suu Kyi’s campaign for a free Burma will one day succeed,” McCain said on the floor of the Senate on Wednesday.

Noting that the US has a critical role to play as a powerful advocate of human rights, McCain added: “Nothing can relieve us of the responsibility to stand up for those whose human rights are in peril, nor of the knowledge that we stand for something in this world greater than self-interest.”

McCain was critical of Burma’s neighbors, including members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), for their failure to send a strong enough signal of solidarity with the Burmese people.

“The countries of Southeast Asia should be at the forefront of this call. Asean now has a human rights charter, in which member countries have committed to protect and promote human rights,” said McCain.

“Now is the time to live up to that commitment, and Asean could start by dispatching envoys to Rangoon in order to demand the immediate, unconditional release of Aung San Suu Kyi,” he added.

However, few people in Burma’s political opposition expect Asean to take a stronger stance against the regime.

“Asean acts like it is hitting a snake but doesn’t want to break its stick or kill the snake,” said Aye Thar Aung, a secretary of the Committee Representing the People’s Parliament, using a Burmese proverb to describe Asean’s efforts to put pressure on the Burmese regime.

“If [Asean] really applied its charter, they could change Burma,” said Khin Maung Swe, a spokesperson for the opposition National League for Democracy. “We hope they will do it this time.”

Referring to a statement by Burma’s ambassador to the UN, Than Swe, that the regime is planning to grant an amnesty to a number of prisoners so they can participate in elections slated for next year, McCain said Asean should demand that this pledge include all political prisoners, including Suu Kyi.

“Secretary of State Clinton will travel to Thailand later this month to participate in the Asean Regional Forum, and I urge her to take this up with her Southeast Asian colleagues,” McCain said.

Regarding the UN secretary-general’ s recent visit to Burma, he said the ruling generals reacted in their typical fashion. “They stage managed Ban Ki-moon’s visit, even refusing his request to speak before a gathering of diplomats and humanitarian groups. Instead, before leaving, he was forced to speak at the regime’s drug elimination museum,” he said.

McCain also spoke out strongly in support of sanctions against the Burmese junta.

“It is incumbent on all those in the international community who care about human rights to respond to the junta’s outrages. This means renewing the sanctions that will expire this year, and it means vigorous enforcement by our Treasury Department of the targeted financial sanctions in place against regime leaders.

“And it means being perfectly clear that we stand on the side of freedom for the Burmese people, and against those who seek to abridge it,” McCain said.

Lawi Weng contributed to this article.
http://www.irrawadd y.org/article. php?art_id= 16349
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Tunnel Troops’ Families Look to Occult for Help
By THE IRRAWADDY         Friday, July 17, 2009

Astrologers and soothsayers in Burma are reportedly being consulted by an increasing number of people who haven’t heard for months from family members of the Burmese army’s Electrical and Mechanical Engineering section working on the regime’s tunnel construction projects.

Some are practicing yadaya, or magic rites, in the hope that family members involved in the projects return home soon and unscathed.
Superstitious Burmese commonly practice yadaya to ward off misfortune or to bring good luck.

Concern about the fate of officers and soldiers assigned to the tunnel projects has grown following publication of reports about the secret work.

Several 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, and have subsequently been circulating widely in Burma. The photographs and video material came from a number of sources, including the Burmese military and Burmese activists.

Family members are reportedly worried that after the completion of the secret tunnel-construction project, the regime may not want the officers and soldiers involved to communicate with the public.

A well-connected Burmese editor based in Rangoon told The Irrawaddy that some of the projects are almost complete and at an “important stage.” He believed that the regime won’t allow soldiers and officers who belong to the engineering force to return home this time.

An astrologer who provided yadaya advice to some family members told The Irrawaddy that a group of female karaoke singers is often brought to Naypyidaw to entertain the officers and soldiers.

The astrologer said that his clients included some family members who had visited Naypyidaw to try and meet soldiers and officers from the engineering department.

“They have seen some tunnels near Naypyidaw and they also heard the sound of testing missiles that misfired,” he said. “They come and see me to get an advice of how to get out of the tunnel project.”

According to a MoU signed between Burma and North Korea in November 2008, Burma plans to build with North Korean technical assistance a military headquarters facility with a maze of underground tunnels around Naypyidaw, the country’s remote capital.

The government is also believed to be building underground silos to house anti-aircraft missiles, radar equipment and other military installations.
http://www.irrawadd y.org/article. php?art_id= 16348
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Maung Aye winds up Shan State tour
by Mizzima News
Friday, 17 July 2009 13:26

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Vice Snr Gen Maung Aye, number two in the Burmese military junta hierarchy, is likely to wind up his visit to Shan State on Friday, sources in the army said.

During the week-long visit, which began on Monday, on top of Maung Aye’s agenda was the issue of transforming ethnic ceasefire armed groups into a Border Guard Force.

Maung Aye arrived in May Myo on Thursday and is expected to return to Naypyitaw shortly.
http://www.mizzima. com/news/ breaking- and-news- brief/2466- maung-aye- winds-up- shan-state- tour.html
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SAARC Ambassadors Club inaugurated in Myanmar
Published by editor Myanmar, News Jul 17, 2009

Colombo, 17 July, (Asiantribune. com): SAARC Ambassador’s Club was inaugurated in keeping with the SAARC tradition, at a meeting, convened   by Sri Lankan Ambassador to Myanmar, Mr. Newton Gunaratna at the Ambassador’s residence.Addressin g the Ambassadors, Mr. Gunaratna briefed them on the progress made by SAARC Secretariat after Sri Lanka assumed the Chair at the 15th SAARC Summit held in Sri Lanka last year and also proposed an action plan.

Accordingly, measures will be taken to organize a “Film Festival of SAARC Countries” and “Art and Handicraft Exhibition” in the near future after consultation with the home countries of the Ambassadors.

-      Asian Tribune -  http://asiantribune .com/07/17/ saarc-ambassador s-club-inaugurat ed-in-myanmar/
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NUKEWARS
NKorea, Myanmar loom over Asian security forum
by Staff Writers
Bangkok (AFP) July 17, 2009

North Korea’s nuclear programme and Myanmar’s rights record are set to dominate Asia’s largest security forum next week, as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton makes her debut at the meeting.

Foreign ministers at the annual Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum in the Thai resort island of Phuket are also expected to discuss the region’s economy and joint action on tackling swine flu.

Thousands of troops and police will throw a ring of steel around the isle for the July 19-23 meeting to prevent a repeat of anti-government protests that forced the abandonment of a separate Asian summit in Thailand in April.

“During the meetings ministers will exchange views on the situation on the Korea peninsula,” Thai foreign ministry official Vitavas Srivihok said last week.

But he said North Korea’s foreign minister had declined to attend and would instead send an ambassador at large to the meeting of 10 ASEAN members plus 16 dialogue partners including the United States, China, Japan and South Korea.

Regional tensions have soared since the North quit six-nation talks on nuclear disarmament and vowed to restart its atomic weapons programme in the wake of its recent defiant nuclear test and missile launches.

Foreign ministers from all six parties will be in Phuket except North Korea.

The US State Department has been coy on whether Clinton would meet any North Korean delegates in Phuket, but spokesman Ian Kelly said last week that “I imagine that North Korea will be a topic at the ASEAN meeting.”

Clinton, who leaves Washington for Mumbai on Thursday, will come to Phuket from India. She travelled to Asia in February on her first trip as secretary of state, visiting Japan, Indonesia, South Korea and China.

In Phuket, Clinton will hold an unprecedented three-way meeting with her counterparts from Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia to discuss health and environmental issues concerning the Mekong river.

The forum will also face the perennial challenge of military-ruled Myanmar, which has sparked international outrage by putting pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi on trial over an incident in which an American man swam to her lakeside house.

Myanmar, ASEAN’s most troublesome member since joining the bloc in 1997, showed its defiance earlier this month by refusing to allow UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to visit the opposition icon when he visited the country.

Vitavas of the Thai foreign ministry said democratic reform in Myanmar could be raised during the Phuket talks. Myanmar’s UN envoy said last week that the ruling junta would release prisoners ahead of elections planned next year.

The regional economy and swine flu could also come up at the ASEAN Regional Forum, Vitavas said. Thailand now has the largest death toll from the A(H1N1) virus in Asia, with 24 fatalities and more than 4,000 infections.

“We will discuss the pandemic and cooperation among members… there are several countries attending which are affected by the flu,” Vitavas said — adding that visiting ministers would be screened for the virus on arrival.

ASEAN foreign ministers are further set to endorse a final version of the bloc’s new human rights body, which has faced criticism for being unable to tackle persistent violators such as Myanmar.

Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has in recent weeks sought to reassure foreign ministers that the Phuket meeting will not be disrupted by anti-government demonstrators following months of political turmoil.

Thailand said it would deploy a 14,000-strong team for the forum and has announced a complete ban on protests in Phuket during the talks, while also invoking an internal security act for the island and its surrounding waters.

In April, Asian leaders were forced to flee the coastal city of Pattaya when protesters loyal to ousted former premier Thaksin Shinawatra stormed the venue. Two days of deadly rioting in Bangkok ensued.

The leaders’ summit has now been postponed until October. It was originally due to be held last December but was repeatedly delayed and moved because of ongoing political turmoil in Thailand.

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Asean’s credibility and relevance in the spotlight
    Writer: THITINAN PONGSUDHIRAK
Published: 17/07/2009 at 12:00 AM
Newspaper section: News

Unlike their past ministerial meetings, the 42nd annual convergence of Asean foreign ministers in Phuket is the most critical in the organisation’ s hitherto lifespan. It will take place on the heels of the delayed Asean Summit last February and the aborted Fourth East Asia Summit (EAS) less than two months later.

Tight security: Soldiers stand guard at Phuket international airport yesterday. Thailand is making sure that this week’s ASEAN ministerial meetings on the resort island proceed smoothly.

As the current Asean chair, Thailand’s domestic political turmoil has put the 10-member grouping on a bumpy road just as the highly touted but problematic Asean Charter marks its seventh month in force since being promulgated last December.

The Asean Ministerial Meeting (AMM), its attendant post-ministerial sessions with dialogue partners and the 16th Asean Regional Forum (ARF) will have far-reaching repercussions for Thailand, Asean in view of the Asean Charter, the region’s search for a workable security architecture, and America’s future role in Asia.

As host, Thailand has understandably opted for a security overkill in Phuket due to the havoc and mayhem of the anti-government red-shirted protesters who disrupted the Fourth EAS.

This round of the EAS will now take two years to hold, and the annual EAS will have skipped a year by the time it convenes in October 2009.

The military battalions and security measures currently in place in Phuket indicate that the high-level meetings next week will be held as planned, but the show of force will exhibit Thailand’s raw and protracted red-yellow polarisation to the outside world.

The focus on the AMM will be the Asean Charter and the Asean Human Rights Body (AHRB) whose terms of reference are supposed to be adopted. Yet the ToR for the AHRB has been contentious. It has neglected key provisions to protect human rights in the region by providing independent experts, mechanisms to lodge human rights complaints, investigative wherewithal, and in-country visits connected to alleged human rights violations.

The AHRB is the most salient provision of the Charter because most of the Asean-related issues are increasingly tied to human rights, from migrant labour and refugees to political persecution and human trafficking. Indeed, human rights are as central to the Charter as the Charter is central to Asean. A weak and ineffective ToR on the AHRB will hollow out the democracy-promoting principles of the Charter.

On paper, Asean has sounded the right notes in its Charter, but in practice the motley grouping of maturing democracies that feature Indonesia and repressive dictatorships such as Burma have lagged far behind. In the past, when the organisation was driven by norms, Asean merely swept contentious issues such as human rights under the carpet for future reckoning.

This time, however, Asean has landed in its own trap because the Charter is an explicit benchmark by which the regional organisation will be judged.

Norms have been superseded by codified rules, inadvertently bringing up reckoning time. Thus far in view of the Rohinya incident earlier this year and Aung San Suu Kyi’s dubious trial and continued confinement in Burma, Asean has not been able to deliver on its Charter intentions.

Human rights advocates will look to Indonesia, the largest and most democratic member, to provide steady stewardship and steer towards an effective and responsive AHRB.

Beyond the AMM, the post-ministerial and the ARF meetings will provide an opportunity for further progress on regional architecture- building. The 27-member ARF itself needs to be reinvented. While it skyrocketed to prominence in the mid-1990s as a premier regional security forum, the ARF has lost momentum and direction after the 1997-98 regional economic crisis, and was further jolted by the post-2001 fixation with the US-led war on terror.

Frustrations with the ARF spawned competing forums and schemes for regional cooperation, including the annual Shangri-La Dialogue, Australia’s Asia-Pacific Community, Indonesia’s G-20 focus, the Asean Plus Three, and the East Asia Summit (EAS).

While the ARF is still the most useful vehicle for addressing regional concerns such as North Korea’s nuclear intentions, maritime security and disaster relief, it has to regain its footing through a renewed commitment and resolve to remain the region’s top security platform.

The United States’ role is crucial to these regional question marks. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s participation will have both symbolic and substantive effects. The US’ scheduled signing of the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation, Asean’s gate-keeping document to institutional engagement in the region, will change regional dynamics.

Although inking the TAC is not tantamount to membership in the EAS, America’s role and intention in regional cooperative enterprises will be boosted. Secretary Clinton’s trip, despite her ongoing recuperation from a broken elbow, stands in stark contrast to her predecessor Condoleeza Rice’s relative neglect of Asian regional issues beyond the Korean Peninsula. It will also herald America’s rejuvenated Asia policy under President Barack Obama, who has emerged as a world leader with recent trips and remarks in the Mideast and Africa, with Asia down the road as the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit looms.

Overall, the AMM will highlight Asean’s shortcomings both at the regional and domestic levels as much as the post-ministerial and ARF will provide a chance for the region’s inchoate institutional coherence to grow. North Korea is likely to be given much focus in open discussions, while Burma will likely be the leading topic on the sidelines. The last high-level meeting among foreign ministers of the US, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam may steal the show as the discussion is slated to be on Burma and its regime that holds the key to Asean’s way forward and America’s direction of engagement in the region.

The writer is Director of the Institute of Security and International Studies, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University.
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Than Shwe’s grandson learns flying 
by Mizzima News
Friday, 17 July 2009 13:39

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – The Burmese military junta supremo Snr Gen Than Shwe’s grandson Pho La Pyea is said to be taking flying lessons, according to eyewitnesses.

The pampered grandson, Pho La Pyea (alias) Nay Shwe Thway Aung, reportedly flew his grandfather’s private Russian-made helicopter from the Meikhtila airbase and landed n Bagan town, sources said.

The white helicopter was gifted to Snr Gen Than Shwe by his close friend and business crony Tayza, sources in the military said. http://www.mizzima. com/news/ inside-burma/ 2467-than- shwes-grandson- learns-flying- .html
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Burma buys electricity from China 
by May Kyaw
Thursday, 16 July 2009 18:09

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – In an ironic twist, Burma is said to have bought 300 megawatts of electricity from the Sino-Burma border town of Ruili in China, to meet the energy requirements of its second largest city of Mandalay.

“Mandalay Division Electric Power Department Divisional Head, Daw Aye Aye Min said that they have sought electricity from China but they don’t know when it will be available,” an official at the Industrial Zone in Mandalay told Mizzima.

The electricity supplied from China will be distributed in both Mandalay Industrial Zone and the Mandalay urban area, which are currently receiving inadequate power supply.

The authorities said, once the electricity is supplied, Mandalay Industrial Zone, currently receiving five hours of power supply per day, will receive it for 10 hours.

The Mandalay Industrial Zone, where cars and vehicles are produced, has a demand for a minimum of 40 megawatt of electricity. But, it is suffering from a deficit of 20 megawatts.

To meet its electricity needs, the Mandalay Industrial Zone is said to be preparing to set up its own electric generation and distribution network at a cost of Kyat 300 million [approximately USD 300,000].

‘Sein Pan’, the industrial area, which was later turned into an industrial zone, over the past 10 years, received regular supply of electricity for the first three years. But later it came down to five hours a day.

“The power supply to our area is from 7 a.m. to noon for the first half of the day and from noon to 5 p.m. in the second half,” Myint Swe, the Chairman of the Industrial Zone said.

While the current electricity tariff is 50 Kyat per unit, it is still not clear how much will be charged for a unit of electricity, once power is bought from China.

Even as Burma buys electricity from China, it has signed agreements with Chinese companies to invest in 10 hydropower projects.

Despite the government’s claim that it will provide 24 hours electricity in 2009, all the cities including former capital Rangoon still face power cuts except newly built Naypyitaw, the jungle capital of Burma.

Even during the monsoons when electricity supply is normally high, residents of Burma’s former capital Rangoon, face shortage of power and receive it for only six hours daily. The city, under blackout, has to put up with sound and carbon pollution from private electric generators.

Chinese Hydroelectric power projects in Burma:

(1) Ye Ywa hydroelectric power project

(2) Paung Laung hydroelectric power project

(3) Salween hydroelectric power project

(4) Seven hydroelectric power projects on Irrawaddy River
http://www.mizzima. com/news/ inside-burma/ 2463-burma- buys-electricity -from-china- .html

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