BURMA RELATED NEWS – AUGUST 26, 2009
Aug 26th, 2009
Wed Aug 26, 3:30 am ET
BANGKOK (Reuters) – Tension between Myanmar government troops and an armed ethnic group has sparked an exodus of thousands of people into China from northeastern Myanmar, activists and witnesses said on Wednesday.
Large groups crossed the border on Tuesday from Kokang in Myanmar’s Shan State, said a Reuters witness in Nansan, a town in China’s southern Yunnan province. About 10,000 people have fled Kokang since August 8, China’s Chongqing Evening News reported.
The Washington-based U.S. Campaign for Burma said tensions first flared on August 8 when the Myanmar army deployed hundreds of troops in Kokang, a mostly ethnic Chinese region where rebels have observed a two-decade-old ceasefire with the government.
The rebels issued a statement via the Myanmar Peace and Democracy Front (MPDF), a newly formed alliance of four ethnic groups, saying the army was pressuring its fighters to join a border security force under the government’s control ahead of Myanmar’s elections planned for 2010.
“Tensions are extremely high,” the MPDF said in the statement issued via the U.S. Campaign for Burma. “With anticipation of resurgence of war, tens of thousands of ethnic people have fled.”
A Nansan shop owner, Xie Feifei, said refugees were being housed by the local government in disused or half-built homes. He did not know of any who had been sent back.
“We haven’t had anything like this happen for about 10 years,” Xie told Reuters by telephone on Wednesday.. “Many people have been coming across the border but it’s fallen off now,” Xie added. “I think everyone who wants to escape has already.”
A local government official in Nansan, however, told Reuters that no refugees had entered the town.
The U.S. Campaign for Burma said the mobilization of troops was a move by the junta to force ethnic groups to form political parties to contest next year’s election, the first in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, in 20 years.
Many ethnic groups feel they have nothing to gain from running in the polls and suspect the junta is trying to neutralize their threat by bringing rebel fighters into the army under the command of the Yangon regime.
The MPDF and Chinese media reports said troops had attacked a factory used by the ethnic groups to service and repair weapons on suspicion it was being used to produce illicit drugs. They said a standoff ensued, prompting thousands to flee the area. Myanmar, which has been ruled by the military since a 1962 coup, is home to more than 100 different ethnic groups.
Many armed groups observe a ceasefire with the government but several have resisted. Ethnic insurgencies have continued, in many cases fueled by the opium trade.
2 hrs 16 mins ago
WASHINGTON (AFP) – US Senator Jim Webb, back from a rare trip to Myanmar, called sanctions against the military regime “overwhelmingly counter-productive” and asked the opposition to consider taking part in upcoming elections.
Webb, who became the first US official to meet the junta’s reclusive leader Than Shwe, voiced concern that Western isolation of Myanmar pushed it into the arms of China, “furthering a dangerous strategic imbalance in the region.”
The United States and European Union have imposed sanctions on Myanmar, earlier known as Burma, due to its refusal to recognize the last elections in 1990 and prolonged detention of the victor, democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.
“While the political motivations behind this approach are laudable, the result has been overwhelmingly counter-productive, ” Webb wrote Wednesday in The New York Times.
“The ruling regime has become more entrenched and at the same time more isolated. The Burmese people have lost access to the outside world,” he said.
Webb said he opposed lifting sanctions due to US economic interests or “if such a decision were seen as a capitulation of our long-held position that Myanmar should abandon its repressive military system in favor of democratic rule.
“But it would be just as bad for us to fold our arms, turn our heads and pretend that by failing to do anything about the situation in Myanmar we are somehow helping to solve it,” he said.
Webb said the United States could offer to help Myanmar carry out elections next year.
Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy has denounced the vote — the first since the 1990 polls — as a sham, particularly as the Nobel laureate remains under house arrest.
But Webb said the opposition party “might consider the advantages of participation as part of a longer-term political strategy.”
“There is room for engagement” with Myanmar, Webb wrote. “Many Asian countries — China among them — do not even allow opposition parties.”
Webb, a Vietnam veteran and author who heads the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on Asia, won the freedom of a troubled American who had been jailed in Myanmar for swimming to Aung San Suu Kyi’s home.
Webb has faced the fury of some Myanmar democracy activists, who accuse him of giving a propaganda coup to the junta.
Wed Aug 26, 1:45 am ET
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – Police in Myanmar seized more than 100 blocks of heroin and nearly 3 million methamphetamine tablets near the border with Thailand in one of the military-ruled country’s largest drug seizures, a state-run newspaper said Wednesday.
An anti-drug squad confiscated two guns and ammunition and arrested four people in the raid Monday on two houses in the northeastern town of Tachileik, the Myanma Ahlin newspaper said.
Police seized 104 heroin blocks, including two that weighed 1,540 pounds (700 kilograms), the newspaper said. It did not give the weight of the remaining 102 blocks.
The seizure also included 2,926,000 methamphetamine pills and 46 pounds (21 kilograms) of powdered heroin, it said.
In July, 1,676 pounds (762 kilograms) of heroin and 340,000 methamphetamine pills were seized in the same border town, about 340 miles (550 kilometers) northeast of the country’s largest city, Yangon. At the time, newspapers called it the biggest single seizure of heroin ever recorded in Myanmar.
Myanmar, also known as Burma, produced an estimated 410 tons of opium in 2008, enough to make around 40 tons of heroin, according to United Nations figures. The country is the world’s second-largest producer after Afghanistan, which accounts for 90 percent of world output.
Myanmar is also a major source of methamphetamine. Much of it is trafficked to neighboring Thailand where abuse of the drug is rampant.
Ary Hermawan, Jakarta | Wed, 08/26/2009 1:40 PM |
A coalition of 70 Asian NGOs called on ASEAN countries Tuesday to create a regional human rights court, amid criticism over the grouping’s failure to form a powerful rights commission and to push Myanmar to free Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
The Solidarity for Asian People’s Advocacy Task Force on ASEAN and Human Rights (SAPA-TFAHR) said it had sent an open letter to the high-level panel tasked with drafting the political declaration to the terms of reference (TOR) of the ASEAN Inter-Governmental Commission for Human Rights.
ASEAN recently approved the terms of reference establishing the first-ever human rights commission in the region, which has been widely criticized as powerless and even accused of being no more than “window dressing” for the organization once dubbed an exclusive club of dictators.
Indonesia, one of the only two full-fledged democracies in the region, secured commitments from other countries to sign a political declaration in return for its endorsement of the terms of reference it had earlier strongly opposed.
The declaration will provide a mandate that the rights commission, slated to be officially established in October, will be reviewed every five years.
The ASEAN panel will convene in Jakarta from Aug. 26 to 27.
In their letter, the NGOs said they demanded the regional grouping establish within 10 years a full-fledged regional human rights mechanism, whose standards they said had to be on a par with those of the mechanisms in other regions such as Africa and Europe, which already had rights courts.
“The evolution to develop protection mandates and a full-fledged human rights mechanism may take 100 years, or 10 years, or less,” Indonesia’s Rafendi Djamin, who co-signed the open letter to the ASEAN panel, said at a press conference in Jakarta.
“We’re saying let’s set a time frame, the sooner the better, but *it* should be no more than 10 years.”
Sinapan Sammydorai, from the Think Center Singapore, said ASEAN countries must set a clear timeline for their human rights agenda, as they did when they decided to make the region a single market by 2015.
Honey Tan, from the ASEAN Women’s Caucus, said although the political declaration was merely a declaration and therefore nonbinding, it could be used as an indicator to measure the improvements made by ASEAN.
She said the current TOR to the rights commission “lacked clarity” and “mostly contradict each other”.
She also highlighted the fact the TOR did not specifically mention the concept of equality in its principle section, and instead used “negative statements” such as “avoidance of double standards” and “avoidance of politicization” .
“If we want to say equality, *then* say equality; don’t put it in the negative,” she said.
Chalida Tajaroensuk, from Thailand’s People’s Empowerment Foundation, said the declaration “will serve as a guideline for the direction of the commission in the future.
In the next five years there will be an amendment to the TOR and we hope the protection elements can be included.”
Does Myanmar Want Nuclear Weapons?
by Michael Sullivan
August 24, 2009
There is no doubt Myanmar has a nuclear program. It sent scientists, technicians and army officers to Russia for training in recent years. And Moscow has agreed to supply
Myanmar, formerly Burma, with a small nuclear reactor for civilian use. The question is, do the Burmese generals want a nuclear weapon, too?
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
Even as he tries to keep his domestic program from falling apart, the president has to pay attention to threats abroad. And this morning, we have a hint why the U.S. may need to pay attention to Myanmar. Last week, we heard from a Virginia senator, who visited that country.. Here’s one reason why that engagement matters. Myanmar, like Iran, has a nuclear program.
Here’s NPR’s Michael Sullivan.
MICHAEL SULLIVAN: There is no doubt Myanmar has a nuclear program. It sent scientists, technicians and army officers to Russia for training in recent years. And Moscow has agreed to supply Myanmar with a small nuclear reactor for civilian use. None of this is disputed. The question is do the Burmese generals want a nuclear weapon too.
Mr. BERTIL LINTNER (Yale Global Online): It is quite clear, I think, that although the Burmese may not have a bomb or even a nuclear capability – no, not yet – they’re certainly interested in acquiring one.
SULLIVAN: That’s Bertil Lintner. He has written extensively about both Myanmar and North Korea from his base in Thailand.
Mr. LINTNER: And they’re seeing how the North Koreans have been able to stand up against the Damascus and the rest of the world because they are nuclear armed. And they would like to have the same kind of negotiating positions.
SULLIVAN: Lintner’s recent piece in Yale Global Online detailed the growing defense ties between the two countries and the elaborate underground complexes Myanmar’s generals are building with help from North Korea. The tunnels, and the reports this summer – ships from North Korea with mysterious cargos bound for Myanmar – have many countries concerned, including the U.S.
Secretary of State Clinton speaking last month in Thailand.
Secretary HILLARY CLINTON (Department of State): We know that there are also growing concerns about military cooperation between North Korea and Burma, which we take very seriously. It would be destabilizing for the region, it would pose a direct threat to Burma’s neighbors and it is something as a treaty ally of Thailand that we are taking very seriously.
SULLIVAN: But the ship may have already sailed. Interviews with defectors, done by Professor Desmond Ball of the Australia National University’s Defense Study Center and journalist Phil Thornton, suggest Myanmar is already well on its way with two reactors already in place.
One of the defectors who worked for a prominent Burmese businessman with close ties to the military, says his former boss helped transport materials from North Korean ships to the remote nuclear sites.
Unidentified Man: Their first intention is with the help of North Korea, they produce U235. If they get U235, (unintelligible) not so difficult. If they can arrange UF6, they can make the nuclear bomb.
SULLIVAN: Phil Thornton says he believes the defector’s story to be both credible and worrisome, since it matches what other defectors interviewed in Thailand has said.
Mr. PHIL THORNTON (Journalist) : Professor Ball has estimated, based on the defector’s testimonies, that it could be about 2014 that may have enough nuclear material to start thinking about a weapon.
SULLIVAN: Myanmar, of course, denies any weapons program exists, but seems unusually sensitive to the recent publicity about the issue. Virginia Senator Jim Webb says it came up during his meetings with Myanmar’s leadership ten days ago.
Senator JIM WEBB (Democrat, Virginia): I did not directly raise the issue of the nuclear program. It was raised to me by a high governmental official, basically saying, you know, we would never move toward a nuclear weapons program.
SULLIVAN: These denials, of course, are met with a great deal of skepticism by those who follow the growing relationship between North Korea and Myanmar. But analyst Bertil Lintner still isn’t convinced Myanmar has even one reactor, let alone two. There is no concrete evidence, he says, that the Russians have delivered the reactor they promised, nor, he says, is there any hard evidence the North Koreans have either – though satellite images do show construction around Myanmar’s suspected nuclear sites.
What is clear, Lintner says, is that Myanmar’s main ally, China, is well aware of Myanmar’s nuclear ambitions. Last year’s clandestine visit to North Korea but a senior Burmese general, he says, proves it.
Mr. LINTNER: He passed through China on his way to North Korea, back again. On his way back from North Korea, Shwe Mann and his entourage had meetings with high-level officials. It was almost as the Chinese were, not only aware of what this trip through North Korea, but they were closely involved in it. See, it’s very convenient for the Chinese to be able to say, we’re not doing this. This is the North Koreans. We can’t control them. It’s kind of a sort of plausible deniability. But there’s definitely Chinese complicity in this new corporation between North Korea and Burma..
SULLIVAN: Something else for the U.S. to think about as it considers a review of its policy toward Myanmar, amid the ongoing tug-of-war with North Korea over its nuclear program.
The New York Times – We Can’t Afford to Ignore Myanmar
By JIM WEBB, Washington
Published: August 25, 2009
EIGHT years ago I visited Myanmar as a private citizen, traveling freely in the capital city of Yangon and around the countryside. This lush, breathtakingly beautiful nation was even then showing the strain of its severance from the outside world. I was a guest of an American businessman, and I understood the frustration and disappointment that he and others felt, knowing even then that tighter sanctions would soon drive them out of the country.
This month I became the first American political leader to visit Myanmar in 10 years, and the first-ever to meet with its reclusive leader, Senior Gen. Than Shwe, in the haunting, empty new capital of Naypyidaw. From there I flew to an even more patched-and- peeled Yangon, where I met with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the opposition leader and Nobel laureate who remains confined to her home. Among other requests, I asked Than Shwe to free her and allow her to participate in politics.
Leaving the country on a military plane with John Yettaw — an American who had been sentenced to seven years of hard labor for immigration offenses, and whose release I had also requested of Than Shwe — I was struck again by how badly the Burmese people need outside help.. They are so hardened after decades of civil war and political stalemate that only an even-handed interlocutor can lift them out of the calcified intransigence that has damaged their lives and threatened the stability of Southeast Asia.
For more than 10 years, the United States and the European Union have employed a policy of ever-tightening economic sanctions against Myanmar, in part fueled by the military government’s failure to recognize the results of a 1990 election won by Aung San Suu Kyi’s party. While the political motivations behind this approach are laudable, the result has been overwhelmingly counterproductive. The ruling regime has become more entrenched and at the same time more isolated. The Burmese people have lost access to the outside world.
Sanctions by Western governments have not been matched by other countries, particularly Russia and China. Indeed, they have allowed China to dramatically increase its economic and political influence in Myanmar, furthering a dangerous strategic imbalance in the region.
According to the nonprofit group EarthRights International, at least 26 Chinese multinational corporations are now involved in more than 62 hydropower, oil, gas and mining projects in Myanmar. This is only the tip of the iceberg. In March, China and Myanmar signed a $2.9-billion agreement for the construction of fuel pipelines that will transport Middle Eastern and African crude oil from Myanmar to China. When completed, Chinese oil tankers will no longer be required to pass through the Straits of Malacca, a time-consuming, strategically vital route where 80 percent of China’s imported oil now passes.
If Chinese commercial influence in Myanmar continues to grow, a military presence could easily follow. Russia is assisting the Myanmar government on a nuclear research project.. None of these projects have improved the daily life of the average citizen of Myanmar, who has almost no contact with the outside world and whose per capita income is among the lowest in Asia.
It would be wrong for the United States to lift sanctions on Myanmar purely on the basis of economic self-interest, or if such a decision were seen as a capitulation of our long-held position that Myanmar should abandon its repressive military system in favor of democratic rule. But it would be just as bad for us to fold our arms, turn our heads, and pretend that by failing to do anything about the situation in Myanmar we are somehow helping to solve it.
So what can and should be done?
First, we must focus on what is possible. The military government in Myanmar has committed itself to elections in 2010, as part of its announced “seven steps toward democracy.” Many point out that the Constitution approved last year in a plebiscite is flawed, since it would allow the military to largely continue its domination of the government, and that the approval process itself was questionable. The legislation to put the Constitution into force has yet to be drafted. The National League for Democracy, Aung San Suu Kyi’s political party, has not agreed to participate in next year’s elections.
But there is room for engagement. Many Asian countries — China among them — do not even allow opposition parties. The National League for Democracy might consider the advantages of participation as part of a longer-term political strategy. And the United States could invigorate the debate with an offer to help assist the electoral process. The Myanmar government’s answer to such an offer would be revealing.
Second, the United States needs to develop clearly articulated standards for its relations with the nondemocratic world. Our distinct policies toward different countries amount to a form of situational ethics that does not translate well into clear-headed diplomacy. We must talk to Myanmar’s leaders. This does not mean that we should abandon our aspirations for a free and open Burmese society, but that our goal will be achieved only through a different course of action.
The United States refused to talk to the Chinese until 1971, more than 20 years after the Communist takeover, and did not resume full diplomatic relations until 1979. And yet China, with whom we seem inextricably tied both as a business partner and a strategic competitor, has no democracy and has never held a national election.
The Hanoi government agreed to internationally supervised elections for Vietnam in 1973, as a result of the Paris peace talks; Washington did not raise this as a precondition to furthering relations. As someone who has worked hard to build a bridge between Hanoi and America’s strongly anticommunist Vietnamese community, I believe the greatest factor in creating a more open society inside Vietnam was the removal of America’s trade embargo in 1994.
Third, our government leaders should call on China to end its silence about the situation in Myanmar, and to act responsibly, in keeping with its role as an ascending world power. Americans should not hold their collective breaths that China will give up the huge strategic advantage it has gained as a result of our current policies. But such a gesture from our government would hold far more sway in world opinion than has the repeated but predictable condemnation of Myanmar’s military government.
Finally, with respect to reducing sanctions, we should proceed carefully but immediately. If there is reciprocation from the government of Myanmar in terms of removing the obstacles that now confront us, there would be several ways for our two governments to move forward. We could begin with humanitarian projects. We might also seek cooperation on our long-held desire to recover the remains of World War II airmen at crash sites in the country’s north.
Our ultimate goal, as it always has been, should be to encourage Myanmar to become a responsible member of the world community, and to end the isolation of its people so that they can live in economic prosperity, under an open political system.
By Stephen King
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Optimistic analysts hope the appalling suffering in Burma will inevitably lead to the collapse of the junta and its replacement by a government led by Aung San Suu Kyi. It’s a forlorn hope: the Burmese army is willing to kill civilians in large numbers. So long as the army stays united, nothing will change
THE news that Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s house arrest is to be extended came as no surprise. How gracious of the Burmese regime to reduce the sentence from three years of hard labour! Micheál Martin issued a suitably withering response.
But before the west cranks up the sanctions another notch, isn’t it time to take a step back and ask ourselves how far the policy of isolating Burma has got us? That Burma is a rogue state, and an intensely paranoid one at that, is pretty universally accepted in Europe and North America. It is also increasingly dangerous.
The junta under Than Shwe is possibly the only government in the world which sees North Korea as a positive model, having secured itself from external interference through possession of nuclear weapons. Words cannot fully capture quite what an unpleasant and anachronistic regime they are running there.
Burma should be a comparatively prosperous nation; it has abundant gas deposits and enormous mineral wealth. It is also a beautiful country ripe for tourist development. But its people have absolutely nothing — apart from the opportunity to admire a very large army.
The satirist PJ O’Rourke once noted that the more references to democracy a country has in its official title, the greater the chance it is run by a grubby totalitarian regime. Hence, the “People’s Republic of China” and the heroically misleading “Democratic People’s Republic” of North Korea.
Burma has its equivalent in the Orwellian-sounding “State Peace and Development Council”. This is essentially a renamed version of the less fluffy-sounding “State Law and Order Restoration Council”. But don’t be misled: there is not much peace in the country and still less in the way of development.
Rather, for Burma’s brutal junta, the “peace” portion of the title signals the army’s self-proclaimed right to maintain internal stability by keeping a malnourished populace crushed underfoot and holding Aung San Suu Kyi captive.
In some ways she is lucky: other opposition politicians are routinely smacked about, tortured or simply disappeared. It’s been like that since General Ne Win’s coup in 1962, which set the country on the glorious path to socialist salvation. But if the generals are out of touch, so are we. The European and American vision of Burma is trapped in that brief moment, now 20 years past, when regime change seemed just around the corner and a democratic leader stood ready to take charge. While life in Burma continues, outsiders seem to relive the day of Suu Kyi’s imprisonment in endless loops, unintentionally forgetting there is more to Burma than a single, extraordinary woman.
As things stand, the west can feel complacent in its condemnation of the Burmese government. But sanctions and isolation haven’t worked and all the while the plight of the Burmese people worsens.
Over the past two decades, the west’s threats have merely hardened the regime’s resistance. Further, these threats have been counterproductive, especially when Burma’s all-important Asian neighbours categorically refuse to jump on the sanctions bandwagon. And the more we continue to isolate Burma, the more we drive it into the welcoming arms of China and the more likely it is to follow North Korea down the nuclear path.
Optimistic analysts hope the appalling suffering in Burma will inevitably lead to the collapse of the junta and its replacement by a government led by Aung San Suu Kyi. It’s a forlorn hope: the Burmese army is willing to kill civilians in large numbers. So long as the army stays united, nothing will change.
Two other stark realities need to be faced. First, there is not the slightest chance of anybody intervening militarily in Burma. Even to talk of it is to partake in self-indulgent prattle.
Second, the primary responsibility for Burma’s plight lies with the Burmese government. Arguments about everything being the fault of imperialism don’t hold water.
But the west pursues policies to have an effect. When those policies have the opposite effect to their intentions they should be discarded. Moreover, these policies, so morally high-blown in intent, must be judged, morally, on their consequences.
The Burmese generals actively pursue a policy of isolation for themselves and for Burmese society. They have had no better friends, no more effective allies, in effect if not in intent, in achieving this isolation than the governments of Europe and America and our human rights lobbies.
China and India fully engage Burma, as do most of its Asian neighbours. That means there is no chance of western sanctions producing regime change. However, even without the support of its Asian neighbours, there is little chance of sanctions producing regime change.
What western sanctions ensure is that Burma is cut off from the most liberalising of all western forces, namely commerce.
Periodically, Burma has flirted with economic liberalisation, but American and European sanctions ban investment in and imports from Burma. This truly is moral vanity and the only people who suffer for it are the Burmese people. Aung San Suu Kyi supports the sanctions, but they are the wrong policy nonetheless. . Merely reciting Suu Kyi’s name, utterly admirable woman that she is, does not constitute a policy.
Trade and development for Burma would not mean democracy, but they would mean a vast improvement on the situation today. The Burmese generals rightly fear trade and development because they believe the import of western companies into Burma would involve importing western values with them.
WHILE maintaining our criticism of Burma on human rights, we would have to be able to hold two contrasting thoughts in our head at the one time, often a very difficult feat in democratic debate.
Drawing the Burmese ruling class into the wider international environment ought to be one big object of our policy towards Burma. Cyclones, AIDS, illegal drug industries: the Burmese government neither can, nor wants to, ameliorate these disasters for the Burmese people. But, at present, the only topic on our agenda is Suu Kyi’s continued house arrest.
The counter-argument is that because the overwhelming majority of Burma’s citizens work in the “informal” economy, they would be quite untouched by sanctions, which would simply reduce the flow of money to the military junta.
Addressing the issue of EU investment in Burma, Archbishop Desmond Tutu said, “apathy in the face of systematic human rights abuses is amoral”. But, while apathy is amoral, so is sloganising. Where did chanting “Free Tibet” get anyone?
Sadly, the history of anti-authoritarian protests suggests that moderation and prayer offer no guarantee of avoiding state repression. Indeed, shows of passivity often invite the iron fist. In the end, some more forceful opposition is likely to be needed to bring about the democratic revolution that the Burmese masses deserve.
Until that day comes, however, simply issuing statements and imposing ever more travel bans on the regime’s leaders and apparatchiks won’t work. Engagement with evil is morally fraught but, when all else fails, it has to be attempted as the option of last resort.
This story appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Wednesday, Aug 26, 2009 @10:39am CST
The U.S. citizen whose uninvited swim led to Aung San Suu Kyi’s arrest is now recuperating at home. But Myanmar’s democracy leader remains under house arrest.
And according to her lawyer, conditions are getting worse and that the terms of Suu Kyi’s confinement have become more harsh since her trial.
John Yettaw, an American convicted in Myanmar of illegally entering the country to visit pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, talked about his actions with CNN’s Kiran Chetry. Yettaw is from Falcon, Missouri – a small town northeast of Springfield in Laclede County.
The former military serviceman says he swam to Suu Kyi’s home, uninvited, because he dreamed that a terrorist group was going to assassinate her.
“She (Suu Kyi) was, from what I gathered..ecstatic that i was there but at the same time extremely frightened. And it’s extremely delicate situation and I don’t want to share details by virtue of confidentiality and out of respect. I told her I would never discuss what we discussed out of respect and I won’t. I did share earlier about telling the women just before I left, I love you, I love you, I love you; I adore you, I adore you, I adore you, I miss you, I miss you, I miss you. and then I walked out the door and slipped into the water and that’s the last time I saw them until trial. Little did I have any idea that that they were going to arrest her and put her on trial. I wept every day and I have suffered every day, it’s not about her and it’s certainly not about some unfit fella going through the water, It’s about stopping the killings and that’s what it was from day one.”
Yettaw was taken into custody, as was Suu Kyi. She was convicted of violating her house arrest, when Yettaw swam uninvited to where she was being held.
Yettaw said he was shocked that Suu Kyi was arrested. U.S. Senator Jim Webb met with officials in Myanmar and was able to gain Yettaw’s release.
He returned to Missouri over the weekend.
www.chinaview. cn 2009-08-27 00:17:33
BEIJING, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) — A senior Chinese legislator said Wednesday that China will promote social exchanges with Myanmar to boost bilateral ties.
“We attach importance to and support friendly exchanges and cooperation between social groups and organizations in China and Myanmar, which will contribute to the development of bilateral ties,” said Zhou Tienong, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, in a meeting with a delegation from a government-supporte d organization from Myanmar.
Zhou, also president of the Chinese Association for International Understanding, briefed the eight-member delegation on China’s political and economic situation, its measures in tackling the global downturn and pledged to boost economic and trade cooperation with the international community, including Myanmar.
The delegation from the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA), was headed by U Than Htay, a member of the USDA Central Executive Committee and Deputy Energy Minister.
China-Myanmar trade hit 2.6 billion U.S. dollars last year, anda Free Trade Area of China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations is expected to be established in 2010.
www.chinaview. cn 2009-08-26 19:19:13
YANGON, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) — Japanese government will offer full scholarships to Myanmar students in social and technological fields for the country’s regional developments, the Yangon Times quoted Japanese Embassy as saying on Wednesday.
The scholarships under Asian Youth Fellowship program, cover those for pursuing master’s degree and Ph.D in Humanities, Social Sciences, Engineering and Natural Science, the Yangon Times said.
The persons under 35 years of age, who got bachelor’s degree ormaster’s degree in the country, can apply for the scholarships for2010, it said, adding that the application for the scholarships will close on Oct. 16.
The winning students will first learn Japanese language for seven months in colleges in Osaka city.
So far, the Japanese government has provided scholarships to 23Myanmar students under the program since 1996.
Meanwhile, a Japanese language proficiency test for Myanmar citizens will be held at the Japanese Embassy on Dec. 6 this year to boost language communication between peoples of Myanmar and Japan.
www.chinaview. cn 2009-08-26 11:44:45
YANGON, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) — Myanmar and Singaporean experts will conduct joint research on orchid at the Hukaung Valley reserve forest in Myanmar’s northernmost Kachin State in April next year, forestry officials said on Thursday.
The research will be the third of its kind after that at Naungmon in 2007 and at Phonkanyarzi Mountain in March 2009 conducted by experts from the Myanmar Horticulture Association and Horticulture Research Committee and Singapore.
Meanwhile, experts of Myanmar and Austria have carried out research on orchid at the Phonkanyarzi Mountain lying at a height of 8,000 feet (2,424 meters) above sea level.
Statistics show that there is a total of over 800 species of orchids in Myanmar.
There is an orchid garden in Pyin Oo Lwin township, northern part of the country, which was inaugurated in December last year.
Claimed as the largest in Myanmar and an international- level one, the 4.95-acre (2 hectare-) orchid garden is located in the famous National Kandawkyi Garden (NKG) in the township in Mandalay division.
The garden showcases 304 kinds of domestic orchids as well as foreign ones imported from Australia, Vietnam, China and Thailand.
Aimed at promoting tourism, a huge floriculture show took place at the NKG also in December last year.
NKG was established in 1915 as a botanical garden and was later expanded in different areas reaching 177 hectares in 2000 which comprises lake, natural forest, observation tower and rose, orchid and bamboo gardens.
Pain Oo Lwin, lying 69 kilometers east of the second largest city of Mandalay and at over 1,000 meters above sea-level, enjoys cool and pleasant weather all year round. The flower city is well known for its pine trees, eucalyptus and silver-oak abounding in town.
Wednesday, 26 August 2009
The following article by the Sri Lankan Embassy in Myanmar traces the religious links between the two countries.
The 12th century painted murals from the Mahavamsa, four abodes of Sinhalese monks and 260 large monuments influenced by Sinhalese were some of the discoveries made by a Sri Lankan team led by scholar Dr. Hema Goonatilake and Sri Lanka Embassy staff including Sri Lankan Ambassador to Myanmar Newton Gunaratne on a recent study visit to the ancient Myanmar city of Bagan.
Bagan with its roots dating back to the 11th Century was the cradle of Myanmar culture. It is to the Burmese what Anuradhapura is to the Sinhalese,a place of pride and past accomplishments and the soul of the country. Bagan is a huge site with over 4,000 major monuments built over a period of three centuries.
It is said that these monuments are a much greater building feat than the construction for all Europe whose construction had however been spread over nearly seven centuries. The rise of Bagan was closely tied to Sri Lanka connections beginning in the 11th Century through religious and political contacts. The beginning of Bagan intellectual culture was due to the inflow of Buddhist monks from Sri Lanka and the Burmese recorded these in inscriptions and in their literature.
Dr. Hema Goonatilake who had been researching into the Sri Lanka Southeast Asia relations for over two decades had published some of these connections. Dr. Goonatilake guided the embassy group into some not so well known sites in Bagan.
She showed a number of very large Buddhist temple sites which had connections with Sri Lanka. There were numerous stupas built on the Sinhalese bell shaped style-actually there were at least 260 such Sinhalese style stupas. The inflow of Sri Lankan culture was facilitated by Myanmar monks visiting Sri Lanka and Sri Lankan monks visiting Bagan.
The stupa enshrining the remains of one of the Myanmar monks Zapata who went to Sri Lanka was there to see it built in the Sri Lanka style. There were four monasteries to house four leading monks from Sri Lanka. The remains of these monasteries are large in number with their own stupa and vihara complexes. The most captivating buildings had murals depicting scenes from the Mahavamsa. One was the Sakyamuni temple which had murals depicting the arrival of Sanghamitta in Sri Lanka, the daughter of Emperor Asoka..
The other was the Gubyaukgyi Temple built in 1113 by Prince Rajakumar, son of King Kyansittha who painted a large number of episodes from the Mahavamsa on the Gubyaukgyi temple walls. These include panels depicting Arahant Mahinda, and King Devanmpiyatissa, the national hero Dutugamunu and his elephant Kandula as well as Prince Gamini sending women’s attire to his father for refusing to fight for the freedom of the country. The invader Elara is depicted in true Mahavamsa style as a just and fair king. His bell of justice is shown together with the calf that wore it – a story known to every child in contemporary Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka’s historical events depicted on the walls end with king Vijayabahu – the contemporary of Rajakumar.
The Bagan site is huge and the story of Myanmar connections with Sri Lanka has only been scratched. Much remains to be discovered and researched. Every Sri Lankan who can afford should visit Bagan as much as they visit Buddha Gaya. They will be amazed.
The Korea Times – Playing Hardball in Face of Wavering West
By John J. Metzler
PARIS ? When a kangaroo court in Yangon (Rangoon) slapped an additional sentence on the already incarcerated pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the world winced.
To be sure, there was the perfunctory outrage, especially in Europe where French President Nicolas Sarkozy called the sentence on this Nobel laureate “a brutal and unjust verdict.” And the European Union presidency demanded her “immediate freedom without conditions.”
Yet, half a world away in Myanmar’s never-never land, the ruling junta felt assured they would ride the most recent ripple of world outrage as much as they survived the near political tsunami wave of condemnation over their blundered and callous handling of foreign aid after a devastating typhoon in May 2008 killed over 100,000 of their own people.
Days after the verdict, the U.N. Security Council, despite laudable pressures from Britain, France and the United States, could barely summon a mild verbal rebuke to the Myanmarese generals.
Given strong political resistance by China and Russia, a Council statement (not a resolution) expressed “serious concern” over the court sentence, but could not utter the word “condemnation” as many countries including the United States had wanted.
At the time of independence from Britain after WWII, Myanmar held so much promise.
A resource-rich and bountiful land, which could and should have been a model Southeast Asian state, sadly slipped into the grip of a military rule whose bizarre blend of socialism, nationalism, self-reliance and corruption made the country now known as Myanmar, a regime isolated save for a few friends like the People’s Republic of China and North Korea.
Myanmar which has been under military rule since 1962 plans a staged election next year, without, of course, the pesky participation of opposition politicians like Suu Kyi who may actually win, as did her forces in 1990, before the results were overturned. She has since spent 14 of the past 20 years under house arrest.
Much of the international community has been striving for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and many other political prisoners. In Western Europe, Myanmar’s tragedy has long been a cause celebre much like the cause of Tibet.
Significantly during the Bush administration, the United States pushed hard for political openness but to little avail. And the United Nations has sent numerous envoys to the Southeast Asian land but with little tangible result.
In early July U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon visited Yangon to try his diplomatic persuasion skills with the ruling generals. He came back embarrassingly empty handed.
U.S. Senator Jim Webb (D-Virginia) , an Obama confidant, recently visited Yangon to try his hand at unlocking the bizarre maze of Myanmarese politics.
On the one hand, Webb succeeded in freeing imprisoned American John Yettaw, an eccentric who triggered the whole fiasco in the first place by sneaking into Suu Kyi’s residence in May and allowing the Junta the perfect excuse to slam the laureate with a new trial for having broken the terms of her house arrest.
But Webb’s mission to Myanmar by the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on East Asia and Pacific affairs, brings a whole new legitimacy to a sordid regime long shunned by the West for good reason.
Though Sen. Webb has reflected the Obama administration’ s wish for a more “constructive” American engagement with Myanmar’s rulers, the aftermath of his dialogue with dictator Than Shwe now faces a number of hurdles, most especially Aung San Suu Kyi’s vocal and politically active supporters in the United States, Europe and, needless to say, Myanmar itself.
On the other hand, Washington’s opposition to the junta rests primarily on human rights grounds and its lack of freedoms. Let’s face it, while Myanmar is a totally wretched regime, it does not really pose a regional danger to its neighbors, nor does it have any historic conflict with the United States, as does, say, North Korea.
But this is not the time to end or ease economic sanctions.
But what now? Clearly Washington wants to wean Myanmar’s rulers from their political and military dependence on China.
This may be wishful thinking. Mainland China has a long border with Myanmar, and uses the Southeast Asian state as a natural resource entrepot for minerals, rubies and timber, as well as a geopolitical backdoor to the Bay of Bengal.
In other words this is Beijing’s neighborhood. It is appallingly naive for Washington to assume otherwise.
John J. Metzler is a United Nations correspondent covering diplomatic and defense issues. He is author of “Divided Dynamism ? The Diplomacy of Separated Nations; Germany, Korea, China” (University Press, 2001). He can be reached at jjmcolumn@att. net.
The Korea Times – Engaging Myanmar’s Junta
By Doug Bandow
The trial of Nobel laureate and Myanmarese (Burmese) democracy advocate Aung San Suu Kyi concluded as expected: with an extension of her term of house arrest.
Unexpected was the visit to Myanmar (Burma) by Sen. Jim Webb (D ? Va.), which resulted in meetings with Suu Kyi and military junta leader Gen. Than Shwe, and the release of imprisoned American John Yettaw.
The Obama administration should follow up on the small diplomatic opening that has resulted.
Unlike North Korea, Myanmar poses no security threat to America. As a result, Myanmar has never been ? and is never likely to be ? high on Washington’s agenda.
Nevertheless, Webb has created an opportunity for the administration to press the Myanmarese junta to improve, even if modestly, its treatment of the Myanmarese people.
The Myanmarese military junta is one of the worst governments on earth. The regime continues to imprison Suu Kyi, as well as more than 2,100 other people for opposing its policies.
Suu Kyi’s party won the last free poll in 1990, which then was voided by the military. She has spent 14 of the last 20 years under arrest. With elections scheduled next year, the regime would almost certainly have found another excuse to keep Suu Kyi imprisoned had Yettaw not made his unexpected appearance to her home.
The election will be a farce without her participation. (The regime’s new constitution also bars her candidacy because she married a foreign citizen.) But that is the junta’s intent: to produce a pliant assembly while creating the veneer of democracy.
Suu Kyi’s heroic struggle has received the most international attention, but the regime’s depredations extend to its brutal war in the east against multiple ethnic groups, such as the Karen and Shan.
Civilians have been murdered, raped, and conscripted as porters by the Myanmarese military. The conflict has displaced millions of people within Myanmar and driven hundreds of thousands of refugees into Thailand. Although the regime has reached peace agreements with some people, it is the peace of the graveyard.
Dramatic reform in Myanmar obviously is desirable. But Washington has been attempting to pressure the government for years, without effect.
America’s options are limited. The U.S. and European Union already apply economic sanctions against Myanmar, including controls targeted against regime elites and cronies.
Unfortunately, China has exhibited no similar scruples, both blocking (along with Russia) U.N. sanctions and becoming the junta’s strongest backer. India, Thailand, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, and other nations in the region also invest in and trade with Myanmar.
Abuses by the previous State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) failed to increase international support for tighter economic controls. So any attempt to expand general sanctions is likely to fail and, even if successful, would hurt Myanmar’s vulnerable people more than regime elites.
Instead, the U.S. and Europe should press Myanmar’s neighbors to adopt limited sanctions targeted against junta leaders and their economic allies.
Moreover, Washington should engage Beijing over the issue, indicating that promoting political reform in Myanmar would enhance China’s international reputation and claim to global leadership.
At the same time the U.S., along with its Asian and European friends, should offer a positive package of economic and diplomatic benefits in case the junta improves human rights and opens Myanmarese society.
In fact, in June, Kurt Campbell, the assistant secretary of state for East Asia, stated that the Obama administration is “prepared to reach out” to Myanmar.
Washington’s expectations should be limited. However, the junta might decide that the benefits from more limited reform are worth the risk of change.
Admittedly, some human rights advocates view such an offer as appeasement or worse. However, Washington’s present course has failed for years to help the Myanmarese people.
In contrast, limited engagement might lead to an improvement in human rights. For instance, the regime’s response to Cyclone Nargis, though initially criminally callous, improved over time, leading the International Crisis Group to conclude that “it is possible to work with the military regime on humanitarian issues.”
He added, “By and large, the authorities are making efforts to facilitate aid, including allowing a substantial role for civil society.” In some international situations, such as Myanmar, there is no solid answer. And good intentions are not enough.
The present U.S. policy of isolating Myanmar has failed. While Washington should continue to highlight the regime’s brutal repression and work with other states to win greater backing for punitive measures, the administration also should develop a positive package to reward the regime for liberalizing Myanmarese society.
The chances of success are slim, but are still better than the likelihood of Washington’s current strategy working.
Doug Bandow is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. A former special assistant to President Ronald Reagan, he is the author of several books, including “Foreign Follies: America’s New Global Empire” (Xulon). This article is adapted from the National Interest. He can be reached at ChessSet@aol. com.
(AFP)
26 August 2009
SEOUL – A senior North Korean military official who reportedly orchestrated a 1983 attempt to blow up the then-South Korean president has died aged 76, state media said.
The North’s official Korean Central News Agency late Tuesday reported leader Kim Jong-Il had expressed “deep condolences” over the death of Vice Marshal Jang Song-U, though it did not say when he passed away.
Jang is an elder brother of Jang Song-Thaek, who is married to Kim Jong-Il’s younger sister and widely seen as the leader’s right-hand man in running domestic affairs.
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency described Jang Song-U as the suspected mastermind of the Rangoon bombing, when the communist North tried to assassinate President Chun Doo-Hwan during a visit to Myanmar.
Chun survived the attempt on his life in the city now known as Yangon, but 17 South Koreans were killed along with four Myanmar citizens.
A National Intelligence Service spokesman in Seoul told AFP that Jang Song-U headed the North’s military reconnaissance bureau when the bombing took place.
He declined comment on whether Jang had been behind the bombing, but Seoul officials said one of the bureau’s tasks at the time was terrorist acts such as assassinations.
Publication Date: 26-08-2009
Burma’s Censorship Board banned the Rangoon-based weekly journal, Phoenix, on August 21, citing violation of censorship rules and regulations, according to an alert by a regional media advocacy group.
According to the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (Seapa), quoting its source Mizzima.com, the censorship board, under the Burmese ministry of information, banned the weekly journal as the publication was found to have violated the rules set by the board.
“Yes, it has been put up on the notice board that the weekly has been banned from publishing,” an official of the board was quoted as saying, but he declined to provide details of the violation of the rules.
However, an official at the Phoenix Journal said, “our officials are still trying to negotiate to get back the license for publication. But there are only about 30 per cent chances that we will be allowed to publish.”
Phoenix, published every Thursday and which has been into publication only for about seven months, had also been banned earlier from publishing one of its issues, which carried news and articles sensitive to censorship.
The notice, which was signed by the director of the censorship board, major Tint Swe, states that the weekly was banned for violating the rules and regulations of censorship time and again.
The publisher of the Phoenix is a former air force officer, major Mar-J, who is also popularly known as writer Mar-J. He was removed from his official post after writing satires on the Burmese junta’s shifting of the capital to Naypyitaw. His writings were also banned from being published in any other journals or publications.
“It looks like he (Mar-J) was marked. And when the journal violated the rules, it gave the authorities an opportunity to get even with him. If they had worked within the framework of the rules, I do not think there would be any problems,” an editor with another local weekly journal in Rangoon told Mizzima.
By TERESA CEROJANO / AP WRITER
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
MANILA — Large pockets of extreme poverty and hunger persist in Asia, where the global downturn makes it more difficult to achieve UN goals to reduce the ranks of the poor, the Asian Development Bank said Wednesday.
Supporting smaller businesses, where most Asians are employed, is key to fueling domestic demand and growth, the Manila-based lender said in a report on key economic indicators.
In 19 Asian economies, including the most populous China and India, more than 10 percent of people live on less than $1.25 a day and more than 10 percent are malnourished. This is despite the region’s success over the last 15 years in cutting the number of poor from one in two to around one in four, the report said.
Nepal is the worst off with 55.1 percent of its population surviving on less than $1.25 a day. In China and India, 15.9 percent and 41.6 percent of the population live below the poverty line, respectively.
Income gap remains wide in many other countries.
More than 30 percent of Tajikistan’s population suffers from hunger, as do 20-30 percent of the people in Armenia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Mongolia, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and East Timor, the ADB said.
Among the so-called UN Millennium Development Goals is cutting in half extreme poverty and hunger by 2015 and reducing maternal mortality by three-quarters over the same period.
The report said that Asia faces serious challenges in meeting goals linked to sanitation and maternal deaths, which remain unacceptably high in countries such as Afghanistan, Nepal and Laos.
About 1,800 out of every 100,000 Afghan women die in childbirth while more than a quarter of urban households in 13 countries still lack access to improved sanitation, the bank said.
The ADB’s chief economist Lee Jong-wha said it was too early to say if current positive economic signs in Asia and other economies mean a global recovery is taking hold.
For Asia to cope with the global downturn, it needs to strengthen domestic demand to sustain growth, said chief ADB economist Lee Jong-wha. Global demand for Asian exports was expected to remain sluggish, but the region could see a V-shaped recovery in 2010, he said.
“It’s unlikely that Asia can export its way out of this slump, as they did after the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis,” Lee told The Associated Press. “This crisis clearly shows that Asia cannot rely only on external demand but must diversify its sources of growth and revive its domestic industries.”
“A return to a fast-growing developing Asia will require some rebalancing of growth toward domestic demand in the region as a whole,” it said.
Governments should focus not only on fiscal stimulus and large enterprises but on supporting small and medium-sized enterprises—where most Asian workers are employed—to build a substantial urban middle class with spending power, he said.
They could do that by strengthening infrastructure, particularly transportation and electricity links, and removing regulations to make it easier to do business.
Lee said the ADB will revise its growth forecast for Asia in September.
In March, the bank predicted a 3 percent growth rate in 2009 for emerging East Asian economies and 6 percent growth in 2010, which is still below the 9.7 percent expansion in 2007.
Associated Press writer Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, contributed to this report.
By ARKAR MOE, Wednesday, August 26, 2009
A military government Web site, “kyaymon” [meaning “the mirror”], which operates as an online daily newspaper in Burmese, on Wednesday criticized two well-known Buddhist monks’ organizations and warned that the Burmese military authorities will take action against them.
The Burmese-language kyaymon Web site claimed that the International Burmese Monks’ Organization [commonly known as “Sasana Moli”] and the Sangha League (Myanmar) are trying to launch another monks’ boycott in Burma similar to the 2007 Saffron Revolution when Buddhist monks were instrumental in leading anti-government protests.
The Web site claimed that U Nayaka and U Candobhasacara from Sasana Moli, and U Jotika, U Paramikhanti and Shwe Zin Tun from Sangha League (Myanmar) are playing leading roles in the movement and that the Burmese public would not approve of it.
It went on to say that the Burmese government would not tolerate this type of movement and would take “severe action” against those involved in it. The Web site urged the public “not to become the monks’ victims.”
The warning comes the day after The Irrawaddy reported that several exiled monk leaders had said that Buddhist monks across the country were preparing to stage a third boycott of military personnel and their families.
A monk from Sangha League (Myanmar) told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday: “It is clear that the Burmese military junta is afraid of the movements of Buddhist monks. It also raises the possibility of the authorities planting fake monks in monasteries and committing violations against our religion.
“Several saffron robe dealers near the Shwedagon Pagoda told our monks that the military authorities had come and bought about 500 saffron robes from them on September 21, 2007. They used those robes as disguises to infiltrate the protests,” he added.
Sangha League (Myanmar) issued a statement on August 22 saying that it was cooperating with 14 other political groups to confront the Burmese military junta.
The US-based International Burmese Monks’ Organization was founded in October 2007 by two revered monks, the late U Kovida and the Malaysian-born Venerable Pannya Vamsa. It says on its Web site that it aims to “give voice to the brave people and monks who have been silenced,” and is “dedicated to peace and freedom in Burma.”
Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Wednesday, one of its leaders, Ashin Sopaka, said, “This [attack] shows that the Burmese dictators will counterattack the media with their own media weapons. They always do wrong and they are constantly breaking the codes of human rights.
“Our monks will surely boycott them if they persist with their religious abuses. All our monks need to boycott this Burmese dictatorship for the sake of our religion and in the interest of peace for all people,” he said.
Burmese monks have boycotted the military regime and their cronies twice in recent history: the first time in 1990 following the suppression of Aung San Suu Kyi and her opposition party, the National League for Democracy, after they had won the last general election by a landslide; and again in 2007, the so-called “Saffron Revolution,” when monk-led demonstrations against price hikes in Rangoon turned into a national uprising.
Ashin Candobhasacara, a secretary of the Sasana Moli, told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday: “Our International Burmese Monks’ Organization and the international community have called on the Burmese junta to release all political prisoners, including monks and nuns.
“Buddha told us that monks have to boycott those who violate religious principles. There is no doubt that the Burmese dictators have killed and arrested many monks and nuns, and have raided and destroyed monasteries.
“So, if they do not apologize to the monks for their religious abuses, we must boycott them according to Buddhist doctrine.
by Usa Pichai
Wednesday, 26 August 2009 12:53
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) –The incident of flash floods near the Thai-Burmese border last week points to the ineffectiveness of the authorities in addition to its blatant blacking out of information, environmentalists have pointed out.
Witoon Permpongsacharoen, an environmentalist attached to the ‘Towards Ecological Recovery and Regional Alliance’, a Bangkok based organization working closely with environmental issues in the region told Mizzima that the recent flooding from the Srikakarin Dam in the Kanchanaburi Province bordering Burma, affected several villages in the area.
But information on this was not available from the authorities.
“While compensation is necessary it is important that the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) and the Petroleum Authority of Thailand (currently the PTT Public Co. Ltd.) should clarify the facts. Earlier there had been warnings that the dam was vulnerable to earthquakes. Besides there was lack of study on the environmental effect in the area from the construction of the dam,” he said.
“The media seems to have no interest in following up the issue though it affects so many villagers,” he said.
Witoon pointed out that the planned series of dams to be built on the Salween River in Burma will also be at risk from earthquakes “even though the authorities claim that engineering technology could solve this problem and resist damage from earthquakes, measuring up to seven on the Richter scale. But who can guarantee whether earthquakes will not be stronger?” he asked.
The dams has been built on the Srisawat active fault near the Three Pagoda Pass, both on the Thai– Burma border and is at risk from earthquakes.
The incident follows an accident during gas transmission from the Bongkot in the Thai Gulf and Yadana fields in Burma last week.. To avoid a power blackout in western Thailand due to the stoppage, the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) decided to release water from the Srinakarin Dam in Kanchanaburi province close to the Burmese border to generate power, which resulted in flooding large areas and affecting hundreds of local villagers. There are rumours that the dam has been damaged by an earthquake.
The cabinet was given the report and has acknowledged the technical problems. It was informed that eight villages in Muang district had been affected by floods, along with three resorts, some raft operations and farmlands. A committee has been set up to investigate the sudden release of water from the Srinakarin Dam.
Deputy permanent secretary Norkun Sitthiphong will chair the committee, which has been given seven days to investigate and submit a report.
“The committee will find out why the water had to be released and whether the decision was appropriate. It must also come up with preventive measures,” he said, denying reports that the floods were caused by an earthquake.
However, in 2007 the fault line in Burma caused small earthquakes in the Golden Triangle areas, connecting Laos, Burma and Thailand, when a 6.1 magnitude earthquake occurred about 700 kilometres from Bangkok.
Such tremors were however not dangerous, but has been causing worry about fault lines near the capital such as the Sakaing fault in the Andaman Sea, 400 kilometres from Bangkok or the Three Pagoda fault zone and the Srisawat fault in Kanchanaburi, 200 kilometres from Bangkok.
Aug 26, 2009 (DVB)–A massive haul of methamphetamine pills was seized at the Burma border town of Tachilek on Monday, along with 721kg of heroin and two guns, Burmese state media reported today.
The town of Tachilek, which acts as a busy crossing point from Burma into Thailand’s Mae Sai, is a popular route for drug trafficking into Thailand.
In July, border police in the town seized $US7.5 million worth of heroin and methamphetamine pills (also known as ‘yaba’). The heroin haul was thought to be seven times the amount seized annually in Burma.
Two houses were searched during Monday’s raid, the New Light of Myanmar newspaper said today.
In the first house were two guns, 964,000 yaba pills, 21 kilos of heroin and 102 blocks of heroin. The second house, located in nearby Wanlone village, contained 1,962,000 pills, 700kg of heroin and 10kg of crystal meth.
The suspects are being questioned, the newspaper report said, while others involved in the trafficking are being investigated.
Burma is the world’s second biggest producer of opium for heroin after Afghanistan, although a UN report released in June said that production is declining.
Much of the methamphetamine consumed in Thailand comes from Burma. The UN report said that there was an alarming rise in the use of synthetic drugs, such as methamphetamine, in developing world.
However, tighter border control by Thailand, following the former prime minister Thaksin Sinawatra’s crackdown on drug use, has meant that increasing amounts circulate inside Burma.
While global markets for most illicit drugs are either steady or in decline, amphetamines remain one of the few drugs that are being produced in increasing quantities.
Reporting by Francis Wade
Aug 26, 2009 (DVB)–Over 60 villages in northern Burma have been ordered by the government to relocate to make way for a new dam on the country’s major river, the Irrawaddy..
Local sources allege that the township council in Kachin state’s capital, Myitkyina, on August 5 summoned authorities from over 60 villages north of the town and told them to move their villages.
The combined population of this area, at the confluence of the Irrawaddy and the N’mai Hka rivers, is estimated at 10,000.
“They didn’t say exactly when we are to move but assured that we would definitely have to move,” said a villager who attended the meeting with the township officials.
“They are now collecting statistics of the villages for the relocation plan.”
He added that there are about 2000 acres of farmland in the area about to be destroyed when the building of the Myitsone dam starts.
Authorities are said to be making a list of those to pay compensation to, although villagers have complained that no compensation has yet been received.
According to advocacy group International Rivers, the dam would create a reservoir the size of New York City, submerging historical sites such as churches and temples.
The dam project is being jointly run through an alliance dominated by Chinese firms, including China Power Investment Corporation, China Southern Power Grid Co. Ltd, and the Yunan Machinery Export Import Company.
Also involved in the project is Asia World Co. Ltd, which is owned by Lo Hsing Han, a Burmese business tycoon and former drug trafficker.
Most electrical power generated from the dam’s hydropower plant will go to China, despite campaigning groups complaining of regular electricity shortages in many of Burma’s major cities.
Reporting by Thiri Htet San