World Needs to Intensify Pressure on Burma: East Timor
East Timor joins arms embargo call against junta
Indian rebels on Burma talks agenda
Burma’s New Constitution: A Death Sentence for Ethnic Diversity
US detainee in Burma meets with lawyers
DKBA Takes Aim at Brigade 5
Than Shwe Meets India’s Army Chief
Australian Fashion Group Announces Burma Trade Ban
Myanmar, Sudan to boost bilateral ties
Burmese concerned if Aung San Suu Kyi being exploited to lift sanctions
Burmese Trafficking Victims Freed in Raid
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World Needs to Intensify Pressure on Burma: East Timor
Tuesday, October 13, 2009

The president of East Timor, Dr José Ramos-Horta, on Monday called for intensified international pressure, including an arms embargo by the UN Security Council, on the Burmese military regime.

In a statement released on Monday, Horta said, “As president of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, I … call on all members of the UN Security Council to … pass a resolution imposing a total, comprehensive, mandatory arms embargo.”

He also said that the international community has to increase and intensify its efforts in pressing the Burmese regime, particularly through an arms embargo.

“It is time for the UN Security Council to introduce an arms embargo on the regime,” said Horta.

“There can be no justification for selling arms to a regime which has no external threats and uses those arms simply to suppress its own people,” he added.

He also criticized the Burmese government for its “extraordinary inhumanity and intransigence,” and mentioned its decision to sentence his fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi, to an additional 18 months under house arrest.

“I deplore this decision, and call for her immediate and unconditional release,” said Horta.

He also said that he welcomed Suu Kyi’s clear reiteration of her call for dialogue with the regime.

“A combination of high-level, principled engagement with specific targeted pressure is what is required to bring the Burmese generals to the negotiating table,” he said.

He also expressed shock at the events of two years ago when peaceful protests led by Buddhist monks were brutally suppressed.

Horta also pointed to the 2008 assassination of Karen rebel leader Mahn Sha, the tragedy of Cyclone Nargis in May 2008, the sham constitutional referendum that same month, the escalation in the military offensive against Karen civilians in eastern Burma, the famine in Chin State, and the attacks on ethnic Kokang people on the Sino-Burmese border, calling the events “examples of the desperate political, human rights and humanitarian [crises] in Burma today.”

He said he also welcomed the new US policy on Burma—engaging high-level-talks with Burma while still imposing sanctions on the Burmese regime.
Copyright © 2008 Irrawaddy Publishing Group | www.irrawaddy.org
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=16980
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East Timor joins arms embargo call against junta
by Mungpi
Tuesday, 13 October 2009 19:27

New Delhi (Mizzima) – President of East Timor Dr. Jose Ramos Horta on Monday called on the United Nations Security Council to impose an arms embargo against the Burmese military regime, joining a host of countries calling for such action.

Dr. Jose Ramos Horta, President of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, in a statement on Monday said the Burmese military junta’s decision to sentence Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi in August has proved its extraordinary inhumanity and intransigence.

“I deplore this decision, and call for her immediate and unconditional release,” Dr. Horta said.

Dr. Horta said the events in the past two years in Burma such as the junta’s brutal crackdown on protests led by Buddhist monks in 2007, the tragedy of Cyclone Nargis, the constitutional referendum, escalating military offensive against civilians in eastern Burma, and the trial and continued imprisonment of Aung San Suu Kyi are all examples of the desperate political, human rights and humanitarian crisis in Burma.

“As President of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, I therefore call on all members of the UN Security Council to give serious consideration to this question, and to pass a resolution imposing a total, comprehensive, mandatory arms embargo,” Dr. Harto said in the statement.

He said the deterioration in the political and humanitarian situation calls for a clear response by the international community saying, “There can be no justification for selling arms to a regime which has no external threats and uses those arms simply to suppress its owns people.”

Dr. Harto’s statement came as campaigners lobby countries to endorse a UN Security Council resolution on a global arms embargo against Burma’s military rulers.

According to Benedict Roger of the Christian Solidarity Worldwide, a Christian campaign group, at least 33 countries have endorsed the move so far but fear remains that China and Russia, the two veto wielding countries and close allies of the Burmese military junta, would block any attempt to push the UNSC to act.

“The biggest challenge is to persuade China and Russia not to veto a resolution imposing an arms embargo,” Rogers said.

Rogers said, although the Burmese junta might continue manufacturing their own arms, a universal arms embargo will deprive the regime of access to foreign weapons supplies and would send a very important message to the international community about the illegitimacy of the regime.

The European Union, United Kingdom, United States of American, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus,  Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and East Timor have so far called for an arms embargo against the Burmese regime. http://www.mizzima.com/news/regional/2898-east-timor-joins-arms-embargo-call-against-junta-.html
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Indian rebels on Burma talks agenda

Oct 13, 2009 (DVB)–The insurgency along India’s border with Burma is likely to feature highly in talks between Burmese officials and India’s army chief now in Burma, the director of the Burma Campaign in Delhi said.

General Deepak Kapoor arrived in Burma on Sunday, reportedly to discuss closer military cooperation between the two countries, and has met with Senior General Than Shwe.

“The Indian interests are to cooperate with the military junta to counter the northeast insurgency that is based in Burma”, said Kim, director of the Delhi-based Burma Centre, adding that “there have been a lot of complaints coming from the [Indian] military about the inaction of the junta”.

His comments were echoed by Dr S Chandrasekharan, of the India-based South Asia Analysis Group, who said that the Burmese junta’s “efforts towards Indian insurgents are restricted”.

The region has been problematic for the Indian government for some time, with several secessionist movements active along the border.

China has also reignited fresh territorial claims over 90,000 square kilometres of the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, with Chinese troops reportedly deployed along the border.

The Chinese are also alleged to be planning to build a railway to the border that will allow it to transport military forces rapidly to the Indian frontier and help accommodate a potential incursion.

A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, Ma Zhaoxu, issued an admonsihement to Delhi following the recent visit of an Indian official to the disputed region.

“We demand the Indian side pay attention to the serious and just concerns of the Chinese side, and do not provoke incidents in the disputed region, in order to facilitate the healthy development of Sino-Indian relations.”

The Burmese junta’s nascent plan to create border security forces out of ceasefire groups has also raised concern in India. The government is said to be concerned that these groups, many of them ethnic insurgents themselves, will not be able to contain India’s northeastern rebels.

Relations between India and Burma have warmed since the mid-1990’s when the Indian government embarked on a ‘Look East’ policy.

India then entered into what analyst Reneud Egretau has called a “great game”, with India battling China for influence over the strategically-placed Burma, and both nations vying for natural resources there.

It is rumoured that during the 2006 visit of then-Indian president, A P J Abdul Kalam, the Indian government agreed not to bring up Burma’s human rights record at the United Nations, a factor which has significantly warmed relations.

India however still lacks the bargaining power that China wields with its Security Council veto, often winning it gas contracts despite bidding less than the Indians.

Reporting by Joseph Allchin http://english.dvb.no/news.php?id=2950
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CONTRIBUTOR
Burma’s New Constitution: A Death Sentence for Ethnic Diversity
By ZIPPORAH SEIN        Tuesday, October 13, 2009

As Burma’s rainy season draws to a close, ethnic Karen villagers in eastern Burma are bracing themselves for a new military onslaught. It is expected that this new military offensive will be much larger than the one in June, which forced around 6,000 people to flee for their lives.

We already have strong indications that the new offensive will take place in Dooplaya and Mutraw (Papun) districts, as attacks have been going on there throughout the rainy season.  Until three years ago, the Burmese government’s army mostly ceased operations during the rainy season, but now civilians get no respite.

So, why this new urgency to escalate attacks? The reason is the same as why the number of political prisoners has doubled in the past two years. It is the same reason why Aung San Suu Kyi was put on trial and her detention extended, and why the dictatorship has broken cease-fire agreements and demanded cease-fire groups place their soldiers under the control of the regime’s army. All opposition and ethnic groups must be crushed in the run up to elections in 2010.

The elections bring in a new Constitution that legalizes dictatorship through a civilian front and a rubber-stamp Parliaments to do its bidding. For Burma’s generals this Constitution is a way of securing their rule.

Despite having been lied to so many times before, the international community seems to be falling into their trap. Many countries have been making the mistake of focusing on the process of the elections, whether they can be free and fair, or at least create some political space.

How short their memories are, when only last year we saw the disgusting spectacle of a referendum on the Constitution while millions went without food and shelter following cyclone Nargis. No political space was created by the referendum.

Those trying to organize a No vote were harassed, arrested or beaten. The rigged referendum delivered an unbelievable result of “92 percent” in favor. Yet despite all evidence to the contrary, some still argue the 2010 elections could create a new political space.

While attention has been on the elections, little attention has been paid to the Constitution. Even those few countries which do focus on the Constitution have mostly focused on how it is undemocratic, granting 25 percent of the seats to the military and giving the military wide veto power over any change.

Attention has also rightly been drawn to other provisions in the Constitution, such as the head of state having to come from the military, 400,000 monks being denied the vote and the failure to repeal any of the existing repressive laws.

No one seems to pay much attention to what this Constitution will mean for ethnic people. The 2008 Constitution is a death sentence for ethnic diversity in Burma. Military appointed commanders will control ethnic areas. There is no level of autonomy.

Our cultures and traditions are given no protection. We will be given no rights to practice our customs, or to speak and teach our languages. The process of Burmanization that has already been going on for decades will be accelerated.

The Karen know from personal experience just how bad this process is. Karen people in the Delta and Rangoon are being stripped of their identity and younger generations can’t speak, read or write our own language, don’t know our history, and even use Burman names to avoid discrimination in employment. Our vision is for a new federal constitution that will guarantee the rights of ethnic people.

The international community seems content to wait and see if elections in 2010 create a little political space. While they focus on the minutiae of politics in Rangoon and Naypyidaw, all around them Burma is descending into an even greater human rights and humanitarian crisis. They must wake up to the urgency of the current situation.

The crisis is unfolding before our eyes. Escalating military attacks on ethnic people are leading to a major humanitarian crisis and creating regional instability. Already we have seen thousands more refugees arrive in Thailand and China. More government soldiers have been sent to Karenni and Shan states, and with the generals breaking cease-fire agreements, the regime will soon also be on the warpath in Kachin and Mon states.

For those of us on the ground it is hard to understand why the United Nations seems content to allow the dictatorship to follow its own agenda in direct defiance of the Security Council and General Assembly.

Time and again the UN has said that there must be tri-partite dialogue between the National League for Democracy (NLD), ethnic representatives and the dictatorship.

The Karen National Union is ready to talk. Other ethnic organizations are ready to talk. The NLD is ready to talk. It is the generals who refuse to talk. Luckily for them, it seems the United Nations is all talk, but no action.

Zipporah Sein is general secretary of the Karen National Union.
Copyright © 2008 Irrawaddy Publishing Group | www.irrawaddy.org
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US detainee in Burma meets with lawyers

Oct 13, 2009 (DVB)–The US citizen currently detained in Burma on charges of masterminding a bomb plot and inciting rioting met with his lawyers yesterday to discuss the pending trial.

Nyi Nyi Aung (also known as Kyaw Zaw Lwin) is due to appear at Rangoon’s Insein prison courtroom on Wednesday to hear details on the trial, his lawyers said.

He is being represented by Nyan Win and Kyi Win, two of the lawyers who represented opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi in her recent trial.

Nyi Nyi Aung, a Burmese national who has US citizenship, was arrested on 3 September upon arrival at Rangoon International Airport.

According to Nyan Win, he is being held under charges of forging documents, although he has also been accused of masterminding bombing plans, inciting riots and funding political activists.

An article in the state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper last month mentioned him in relation to a series of bomb blasts that hit Rangoon on 16 and 17 September, two weeks after he was arrested.

Meanwhile, his cousin, Thet Thet Aung, a female member of the 88 Generation Students activist group who is currently serving a 65-year prison sentence, is reportedly in need of heart surgery.

Her mother, Su Su Kyi, who is also the aunt of Nyi Nyi Aung, said that a prison doctor had told her the news during a visit on 8 October.

“I’m worried something might happen to her. I’m going to discuss this with the doctors and our relatives,” she said. “We prefer to have the operation in Rangoon as her family is there.”

Su Su Kyi’s sister and the mother of Nyi Nyi Aung, San San Tin, who is serving a nine-year prison sentence in Burma’s central Mandalay division, is also reportedly in poor health.

“She has been quite ill but still hasn’t seen by a doctor,” said Su Su Kyi. “She previously had an operation on her left eye and now can barely see with it.”

San San Tin was detained by authorities in October 2007 when police arrested Thet Thet Aung. She was imprisoned on charges of aid and abetting a wanted person.

Reporting by Naw Say Phaw  http://english.dvb.no/news.php?id=2948
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DKBA Takes Aim at Brigade 5
By SAW YAN NAING        Tuesday, October 13, 2009

About 2,000 Karen villagers have been forced to relocate by the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) since May, as the pro-junta ethnic army takes up position to move into northern Karen State where the Karen National Union’s (KNU) Brigade 5 is based, according to Karen sources.

According to a Karen relief group, the Karen Office for Relief and Development (KORD), the estimated 2,000 Karen villagers are from six villages in Papun District and were forced to relocate to a makeshift jungle camp known as Thapepan, which is controlled by the DKBA.
Photo taken in June, 2009 shows a family of Karen refugees resting under a temporary shelter on the Thai-Burmese border. An offensive against Karen rebels at that time caused some 4,000 people fleeing for safety. (Photo: Getty Images)

Maw Law, a KORD field relief worker who recently returned from northern Karen State, said the DKBA has recently been recruiting members from among the villagers and has forbidden them from leaving the relocation site.

“They won’t even let villagers go out of the camp to forage for food,” said Maw Law.

He speculated that the DKBA wants to cut the Karen villagers’ lines of communication with the KNU’s military wing, the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA).

About 35 villagers escaped and ran away from the relocation camp due to the restrictions, said Maw Law.

After seizing KNLA Brigade 7 in June, the DKBA vowed to launch a military operation against KNLA Brigade 5 in Papun District by September.

A member of the Free Burma Rangers, a locally based relief group, said DKBA battalions are active in Mae Mwe areas in Papun District and that the DKBA soldiers were trying to “clean up” KNLA Brigade 5 in Papun district.

Fighting in Papun district is now reported every day, he said.

Col Chit Thu, the commander of DKBA Battalion 999, had planned to establish a new battalion in Mae Mwe and personally take command of the operation in KNLA Brigade 5, Karen sources said.

However, he was reportedly forced to abandon his plan when he had to undergo an urgent medical operation.

The DKBA has in recent months been recruiting locals as soldiers as it looks to increase its troop strength from 6,000 to 9,000, which will help balance the Burmese army-dominated border guard force in the area.

Due to forced recruitment and fighting in KNLA Brigade 7 in June, more than 3,000 Karen villagers fled into Thailand’s Tha Song Yang District.

Karen sources on the Thai-Burmese border said DKBA soldiers will replace Burmese government troops positioned along the Salween River border in Papun District by 2010.

Trade at Brigade 5 on the Thai-Burmese border includes building supplies, food and cattle.

One shopkeeper in Mae Sam Leap, a border port where many traders operate, said businessmen in the town were worried about restrictions on trade should the DKBA control the border zone.

Some Karen sources said that restrictions will also impact on Karen relief groups and the KNU, with humanitarian assistance such as medical supplies, foods, clothes and other commodities being confiscated or highly taxed.

Brigade 5 is the main channel where aid and supplies pass en route to KNU brigades 1, 2 and 3.

“Transportation will be restricted if the DKBA takes control because they don’t really have law and order,” Maw Law said. “They just do whatever they want.” http://www.irrawaddy.org/highlight.php?art_id=16988
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Than Shwe Meets India’s Army Chief
By WAI MOE      Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Snr-Gen Than Shwe, the head of the Burmese junta, met with India’s visiting army chief Gen Deepak Kapoor in Napyidaw on Monday.

According to Burma’s state-run-newspapers, Than Shwe received Gen Deepak Kapoor and his delegation along with other top ranking junta generals including Vice Snr-Gen Maung Aye, Gen Shwe Mann, Gen Tin Aung Myint Oo.
In this photo released by Myanmar News Agency (MNA), Snr-Gen Than Shwe, and Vice Snr-Gen Maung Aye center meets Indian Army Chief Gen. Deepak Kapoor in Naypyidaw.

Lt-Gen Ye Myint, the chief of Burmese military intelligence, called Military Affairs Security, was also in the welcoming delegation, reflecting the importance of counter insurgency and ethnic issues along the Indo-Burma border.

Before the meeting, Than Shwe, the Indian army chief met with Maung Aye on Monday morning, along with the head of Military Ordnance, Lt-Gen Tin Aye, which underscored the importance of India as a supplier of military hardware to the regime.

A few days earlier, Deepak Kapoor told India’s Time Now television that India’s army is capable of countering any Chinese military threat. India has accused China of incursions into its territory during the past two years.

Commenting on China, he said: “The Indian army is capable of looking after the defense of the country. So, it would take care of any aggression. Certain offensive actions are also part of the overall defense. We do not have any designs on anyone else’s territory, but we would like to defend our territory.”

Following the Indian general’s visit, observers noted that the military regime also received US Sen. James Webb in August. Both actions are seen as countering Beijing’s influence in the region and an effort to reduce Burma’s dependency on China.

“Traditionally Burmese leaders, including former prime minister U Nu, have been concerned about China’s influence and threats as the two countries have had historical conflicts. So Snr-Gen Than Shwe needs more friends to balance Beijing’s rising influence in Burma,” said Aung Naing Oo, a Burmese political analyst based in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Two months ago, Than Shwe met the US senator who supports an end to US sanctions on the junta. He discussed China’s influence in Burma when he met Than Shwe and the Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi during his visit.

Webb later wrote in a The New York Times column that Western sanctions “have allowed China to dramatically increase its economic and political influence” in Burma, “furthering a dangerous strategic imbalance in the region.”

“If Chinese commercial influence in Myanmar continues to grow, a military presence could easily follow,” he said.

About a week after Webb’s visit, the Burmese junta captured territory of the Kokang ethnic cease-fire group on the Sino-Burma border on August 24. Beijing has repeatedly called for a peaceful resolution to ethnic group conflicts in Burma. The junta’s Kokang offensive drove as many as 37,000 Kokang Chinese refugees to seek safety in China
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=16987
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Australian Fashion Group Announces Burma Trade Ban
By KO HTWE      Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Australia’s Speciality Fashion Group has stopped dealing with companies that trade with Burma, the Burma Campaign Australia (BCA) announced on Monday.

The group’s company secretary wrote to BCA saying its decision was “due to continuing repression of the Burmese people and the ongoing presence of military rule.”

BCA spokeswoman Zetty Brake hailed the company’s decision. She said the Speciality Fashion Group had a very strict human and social rights compliance policy, focusing especially on workers’ rights and the prohibition of employing under-age workers or forced labor in its factories.

Brake told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday that firms investing in Burmese industries and other sectors controlled by the regime were supporting it financially and perpetuating military rule.

“We understand that in the garment industry there is some impact on employment, but in the case of Australian companies investing or operating in Burma the impact is very small on the Burmese people,” she said.

Speciality Fashion Group has six fashion labels—Millers, Crossroads, Katies, Autograph, City Chic and Queenspark.

BCA estimated in its last report that Australian companies had contributed up to US $2.8 billion to regime coffers.

“These companies are helping the military dictatorship earn money and get richer, not helping the ordinary people of Burma,” Brake said.

Australian companies that withdrew from Burma earlier this year include the insurers QBE and the engineering company Downer EDI, but others that continue to do business there include Jetstar Asia, Chevron, Andaman Teak Supplies, Gecko’s Adventure, Lonely Planet, Sri Asia Tourism and Twinza Oil.

“The message is clear: don’t deal with Burma,” Brake said. “We will continue to lobby, contact and encourage companies to withdraw voluntarily and do the right thing.”

Recently, the Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi met the Australian ambassador and US and British diplomats to discuss economic sanctions against Burma.

Dr Alison Vicary and Dr Sean Turnell, co-editors of the Australian Macquarie University journal Burma Economic Watch, said in a recent article that sanctions against Burma by the US, EU, Canada and Australia are extraordinarily well-targeted.

“Once the richest country in South-East Asia, Burma is now by far the poorest,” they wrote. “But this disastrous turnaround has nothing to do with the sanctions imposed on Burma’s military regime by the United States, the European Union, Canada, Australia and a number of other like-minded countries.”

In October 2007, Australia implemented an arms embargo on the Burmese regime and also restrictions on financial transactions and visas for travel to Australia by members of the Burmese regime, their associates and supporters.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=16986
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Myanmar, Sudan to boost bilateral ties
13:18, October 12, 2009

Myanmar and Sudan will work for boosting bilateral ties including mutually-beneficial cooperation and the existing friendly cooperation between the two countries, the official newspaper New Light of Myanmar reported Monday.

It was discussed during talks between Myanmar Deputy Foreign Minister U Maung Myint and his Sudanese counterpart Ali Ahmad Karti who visited Nay Pyi Taw over the past four days.

The two sides agreed to cement the cooperation through such international organizations as the United Nations and the Non-Aligned Movement.

During his visit, Karti also met with Myanmar Foreign Minister U Nyan Win and mutually-beneficial cooperation on investment and energy sectors were also discussed during meeting with related deputy ministers, the report said.

Moreover, Karti’s delegation also met with officials of the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry in Yangon, agreeing to enhance links between business organizations of the two countries to boost economic and trade cooperation, the report added.

Source: Xinhua
http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/90851/6780913.html
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Burmese concerned if Aung San Suu Kyi being exploited to lift sanctions
Tue, 2009-10-13 03:40 — editor

By Zin Linn

”With the sanctions hurting directly the military regime and the country’s financial system on the downtrend due to mismanagement, the junta’s chief has no other alternative but look for support to the Western Bloc.

Besides, Snr. Gen.Than Shwe is craving to create a good relation with western democracies so that that will fortify or shield his legality,” a Burmese journalist on condition of anonymity commented about the recent meeting of Burmese pro-democracy leader and the Western diplomats.

On October 9, head of Burma’s junta has allowed the detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi to meet Western diplomats to talk about sanctions imposed against the military regime.

The Nobel Prize winner, who remains under house arrest, was driven to a government guesthouse to meet acting US Charge d’Affaires Thomas Vajda, British Ambassador Andrew Heyn, who represented the European Union (EU) and Australian Deputy Head of Mission Simon Christopher Starr for an hour to discuss the possible lifting of sanctions on Burma.

US Embassy spokesman Drake Weisert, however, told the press, “The meeting follows Aung San Suu Kyi’s request in a letter to Senior General Than Shwe to meet representatives of the US and other countries to discuss their relevant policies on sanctions.”

The surprise meeting with diplomats followed two sessions of consultation this month between Suu Kyi and the junta’s liaison and Labour Minister Aung Kyi, to discuss her September 25th proposal to help end sanctions against the regime.

Gen. Than Shwe:‘General elections as scheduled in 2010’

On the same day Aung San Suu Kyi met the western diplomats, Than Shwe, Burma’s supreme military commander spoke in the capital, of launching a general election as scheduled in 2010.

Snr-Gen Than Shwe also indicated in his speech that he would not yield to demands from domestic and international critics who say that the country’s military-sponsored constitution should be revised ahead of next year’s elections.

The Snr. Gen. said, “The new State constitution has been approved by the great majority,” the New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported on October 10. “Elections will be systematically held in 2010 … in accord with the constitution.”

The 2008 Constitution, the junta said, was “approved” by more than 90 per cent of eligible voters during a referendum in May 2008. The outcome of the referendum was widely dismissed as a sham. But, the regime has constantly ignored calls from the international community and Burma’s main opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), to review the constitution.

Although there are 10 registered political parties in Burma, most of them are inactive. The most important thing to be done is to proclaim an electoral law allowing new parties to form and register to contest in the elections. The international community, led by the UN, has constantly stated that the election be all-inclusive, free and fair.

In its ‘Shwe-gon-dine declaration’ dated 29th April 2009, the NLD set conditions for its participation in the 2010 general election. It requested to make amendment of any provisions in the 2008 constitution which are not in harmony with democratic principles and an all-inclusive free and fair poll under international supervision.

UN Sec.Gen.: ‘free Aung San before elections’

Rights groups have also said that the regime must release all 2,100 political prisoners, including NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi, if it wants the elections to be regarded as legitimate.

The election, which would be neither free nor fair in a country long condemned for human rights abuses, was planned following the 2008 constitution, which in effect reinforces the military-control over any democratically elected administration.

The Western democracies and the United Nations’ Secretary General Ban Ki-moon have warned that the world community would not recognize the result of a general election next year unless the NLD participates in the polls and Aung San Suu Kyi is freed from house incarceration, where she has been kept for 14 of the past 20 years.

The majority of Western nations have demanded that Than Shwe must release Suu Kyi and over 2,100 other political prisoners as a first step toward democratization in the country, which has been under military rule since 1962.

International sanctions have been imposed on Burma since 1988 when the military mercilessly cracked down on pro-democracy demonstrations, leaving an estimation of 3,000 people dead. The US and the EU increased their sanctions after the junta refused to acknowledge the NLD’s victory in 1990 elections and then arrested opponents and suppressed every type of opposition. Most of the sanctions target the top generals in particular.

With the exception of sanctions by the US and the European Union, the regime is presently suffering assorted sanctions from Australia, Canada and Japan. The regime has been left without development assistance from International financial institutions such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the Asia Development Bank. If the regime ignored calls from the international community to promote a favorable setting for a free and fair election prior to 2010, international sanctions are probable to be greater than before in the post-election chapter.

Double talk

Than Shwe hinted this year that he would be willing to open a political dialogue with Suu Kyi if she agreed to cooperate on the sanctions issue. However, in his speech to the War Veterans Organization, Than Shwe said that some powerful nations are playing many ways to force and influence Burma under various pretexts.

“However, the military government of Myanmar does not get scared whenever intimidated and will continue to work relentlessly for a better future of the State and the people by overcoming any difficulties,” Than Shwe said.

Thus, it is a contradiction between allowing the Lady meeting with western diplomats and the heartless tone of Than Shwe’s speech at the meeting with war veterans. People are concerned about the situation of the Lady being exploited by the crooked military chief. The main aim of allowing the Lady meeting with western diplomats seems to ease the sanction strategy and to persuade the world supporting the so-called discipline-flourishing democracy.

According to some analysts, there is no improvement at all. Looking at the truth on the ground, there is more aggression in this 2009, more restrictions toward media and civil societies, more control on Internet users, more arrests, more political prisoners, and more military attacks in the ethnic minority areas. So, dissident politicians warned each other to be very cautious and to put pressure on the regime until the said benchmarks are carried out.

As things go, sanctions may not be easily faded out unless the junta showed positive signs i.e. stop aggressive acts on the NLD and ethnic parties; allow freedom of assembly and freedom of expression.

The best option is that the junta’s supreme commander should abandon his pessimism on dialogue with democracy icon in pursuit of national reconciliation. The 2008 Constitution and the junta’s unyielding adherence to its seven-step roadmap toward the 2010 elections will create a highly unstable political climate. Without an agreement of national reconciliation, 2010 elections will go nowhere.

Zin Linn: The author, a freelance Burmese journalist, lives in exile. Now he’s working at the NCGUB East Office as an information director and is vice-president of Burma Media Association, which is affiliated with the Paris- based Reporters Sans Frontiers.

- Asian Tribune -  http://www.asiantribune.com/news/2009/10/12/burmese-concerned-if-aung-san-suu-kyi-being-exploited-lift-sanctions
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Burmese Trafficking Victims Freed in Raid
By ALEX ELLGEE  Tuesday, October 13, 2009

BANGKOK — Eighteen human trafficking victims were freed from captivity this week when Thai police and human rights activists raided two boats and broker houses in Samaesan, a fishing town in Santthip Province.

In a joint operation by the Labour Rights Promotion Network (LPN), Seafarer’s Union Burma (SUB) and the Department of Special Investigation (DSI), two major brokers in the region and a Thai boat captain were arrested.
Fishing boats on the pier after returning with the day’s catch. (Photo: Alex Ellgee)

The victims, all Burmese nationals, had been assured jobs in Thai factories by job brokers inside Burma but instead were sold as fishermen to two Thai boat captains.

Having passed through the hands of three different brokers, the victims were told they would have to work without pay for seven months in order pay off the trafficking costs, which equaled 22,000 baht (US $650).

Following a tip off from two of the fishermen working on one of the boats, 20 DSI police waited at a pier for the boat to return from its day at sea. When the boat arrived, the police interrogated the captain while Ko Ko Aung of the SUB, which is affiliated with the International Trade Federation (ITF), informed the fishermen they could leave the boat if they wished.

Meanwhile, another vessel had returned to the pier and police boarded it, but they missed the captain who they believe had been alerted to their presence and fled. Six fishermen on the boat asked to be freed, leaving three who had finished their seven months indenture.

The scrawny victims, mostly barefooted, looking exhausted,  trudged ashore with small bags carrying their belongings and sat on the pier. Their expressions soon changed to happiness, as they realized that their ordeal was over.

“I can’t believe it.  I thought I was going to be working like a slave on that boat for ever. I can’t believe we have been rescued,” said one 24-year-old victim from Pego.

The fishermen were taken to Sattahip Marine Police Station and interviewed by the Social Development and Human Security department, and later sent to a government safe house for trafficking victims.

Sitting around outside the police station, smiling at their new freedom, the men told The Irrawaddy how they had been regularly beaten by the captain with an iron rod. They worked even when they were sick, and without medicine.

The captain didn’t speak Burmese, and he couldn’t understand if one of the fishermen had a problem, said one of the fishermen.  Instead, would just get angry and violent. Several times they asked the captain to let them leave, but he told them that he had bought them, and they belonged to him.
Ko Ko Aung of the SUB, right, explains to captive Burmese fishermen that they are free and can leave the boat. (Photo: Alex Ellgee)

One of the victims said he was so desperate to escape that one night, in spite of dangerous waters, he joined two others and attempted to swim to shore. He lost the others on the way, he said, and when he arrived on land he was quickly rounded up by brokers because of his shaved head, which all trafficking victims share so that they can be identified by brokers. He never saw his two friends again.

As a result of his attempted escape, and to make an example, every night for two months the broker tied his hands together.

“It didn’t matter if my hands were tied together, we were all in prison.” he said.

Every evening after they had unloaded the day’s catch, the brokers would pick them up and return them to their room and then padlock the door from the outside. The room consisted of a few rugs and one small fan. The windows were boarded up to prevent escape.

When the victims had been interviewed, it was decided that they would lead police to the fishing village to rescue other trafficking victims who had been locked up for the night. A few of the fishermen led a four-car convoy through winding streets.

Arriving at one location, the police and activists entered the broker’s home and ordered her to open a padlock on an upstairs room. Inside the room were four young men. They were led to cars and two more fishermen were collected from another room on the opposite side of the road.

One of the boys, 15, was asked what he missed most while in captivity.

He told The Irrawaddy, “I couldn’t miss anything. I had so much pain and suffering that I could only think about how to deal with the next thing.”

Two other minors were found aboard a ship, one 15, and the other 16.
Activists and police outside a room with four human trafficking victims locked inside. (Photo: Alex Ellgee)

The oldest man in captivity on one boat was 51. He had completed a prestigious engineering course in Burma and had worked for the government but didn’t have enough money to survive.

“Even though I worked for my government, I didn’t have enough to take care to my son so we came to Thailand, but we ended up like this” he said.

The broker who was arrested was known by SUB and LPN as a major human trafficker in the region. She called her “leader” to put up bail. The man handed over 100,000 baht, gold jewelry and his car. They will both face trial. Human trafficking can lead to a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.

As the police interviewed the male broker, one of the victims looked through a window from outside and told The Irrawaddy he was happy.

”He was the one who brought us to the town in the beginning” he said. “Now if this man is caught many people will get freedom like we have.”

Human rights worker Ko Ko Aung agreed.

“These two are leading brokers,” he said.  “Their arrest will have a big impact on the region. Many brokers will be scared because of this and run away and more fishermen will come forward and help us in our attempt to stop it.

“One of the problems we need to overcome,” he said, “is the complicity of local police. I’m happy that we can rely on the good work of the DSI.”

He said he believed 99 percent of the fishermen in the area were victims of human trafficking.

A lot of the information in this case came from an ex-fisherman.

“I suffered like those fishermen, but I was lucky and I escaped,” he said.  “I can’t stop thinking about how they suffer, so I will stop at nothing to help others get freedom.”

Aung Thu Ya, the president of SUB, said the Burmese government is largely to blame for the trafficking problem because it punishes abused Burmese fishermen and other workers who contact trade unions. Fishermen have been arrested in the past for seeking help from trade unions and have had their seamen licenses revoked upon their return to Burma.

The human trafficking problem has led to an estimated 1,000 fishermen jumping ship and living on islands in Indonesia to escape the ill treatment of boat captains, according to activists.

The situation is so bad, said Aung Thu Ya , that,  “Thai skippers value the fish more than they do the Burmese fishermen.”
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